Why do so many Americans feel that politics has become irrelevant to
their daily lives? Why is there so little public discussion of important
social issues, despite unprecedented access to mass media and new
communication technologies? This book delves beneath the sound bites and
news headlines to explore the ongoing process of depoliticization in the
United States. Attuned to the many contemporary trends eroding the
public sphere, Carl Boggs illuminates the American retreat to an eerily
privatized landscape of shopping malls, gated communities, new-age fads,
rural militias, isolated computer terminals, and postmodern intellectual
discourse. Yet Boggs maintains hope that current trends can be reversed,
issuing an eloquent call for revitalizing politics, culture, and civic
society. The paperback concludes with a new postscript on the movement
against corporate globalization and the tumultuous presidential election
of 2000.