#50 The Thatcherite Offensive w/ Alexander Gallas
Added 2019-06-05 14:19:20 +0000 UTCAlexander Gallas, author of The Thatcherite Offensive: A Neo-Poulantzasian Analysis joins me to discussed the degree of popular support for the political and economic project of the Thatcher government, the debates between Stuart Hall and Bob Jessop on the nature of Thatcherite hegemony, and we also chatted about the way in which the New Labour era can be seen as a consolidation of Thatcherite neoliberalism.
Comments
My guess was you've read the book but I didn't know how to search on the web site to see if you'd already done and interview with Robin. Thanks for the link. I'll be listening today.
J Kepler
2019-06-12 19:07:38 +0000 UTCHi David! Glad you enjoyed it. Completely agree with you re. Corey Robin's book - in fact I interviewed him a few months back: https://www.patreon.com/posts/42-corey-robin-25844445
Politics Theory Other
2019-06-12 10:51:55 +0000 UTCHello, Gallas's analysis and history repeatedly reminded me of the principal thesis of Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump. When Gallas talked about the Thatcherite attack on the unions as well as the "gentleman capitalists" he is describing almost exactly the attitude of Burke in his attacks on what he saw as a decadent aristocracy unable to defend itself from revolution in France and possibly, he feared, in the United Kingdom. When Gallas talks about Heath's question, "Who governs?", he echoes Robin's description of the indignant rage of Burke at the insolence of French revolutionaries. You see it as well in the attitudes of the enslavers in the antebellum American South. Senator Calhoun from South Carolina even argued in favor of a gag rule in the Senate to prohibit the reading of abolitionist petitions to the Senate (such a rule had already been passed in the House). Calhoun acted as a bulwark against a rising tide of abolitionism. My point is Burke's, Calhoun's, Heath's, and Thatcher's indignation, as well as their humble origins are all of a piece. (Burke's family was lower down in the Anglo-Irish Protestant social order, Calhoun–of Ulster-Scots heritage–was born poor and married a rich cousin, Heath was son of a carpenter, and Thatcher daughter of a grocer.) I don't know if conservatives in the UK pay as much lip service to Burke as our supposed conservative "intellectuals" in America do but I think you'd find Robin's history a fascinating companion to Gallas's book.
J Kepler
2019-06-12 02:46:53 +0000 UTC
