Prisoners of the American Dream

by Mike Davis (1986)

7/10

I’m embarrassed to never have heard of Mike Davis until he passed a few months ago. I’m glad though that I’m now getting to know his work.

This was a very dense, difficult book to get through but the history and analysis are really impressive: comprehensive, prescient and nearly flawless. Especially noteworthy is Davis’s analysis of and prediction for neoliberalism, afaik a pretty new term for the time he was writing in the mid-80s. He totally nails its trajectory both into the 90s and beyond, and his analysis of the 80s Democrats could be applied virtually unchanged to 21st century politics. It’s amazing and depressing how applicable most of his analysis still is: 30 years later, Democrats are still treating leftists as they did Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition — trying to appeal to the mythical “alienated conservative” voter while both neglecting and browbeating what should be their Black and Brown base.

Also of great value is his summary of the entire U.S. labor history through the 80s. His realist corrective is sorely needed in an area that routinely suffers from unduly romanticizing past labor struggles. In reality, Big Labor was coopted by corporations as long as a century ago, and they’ve suffered almost continuous erosion of labor rights since, with the lone victories coming at the hands at more decentralized and radical efforts, which the main union bosses often allied with corporate masters to quash. The entire history can easily be read as a stinging critique of democratic centralism, which is quite remarkable coming from an avowed Marxist. Indeed, he strongly criticizes the Communist Party USA for capitulating to liberal electoralism in the 30s and 40s.

Ultimately, while I think this book is extremely valuable, its dense academic style will make it difficult for most normies to get through. I wish it were more accessible so that I could more widely recommend it, but as it is I can only highly recommend it to academics, or those sufficiently passionate about labor history to be able to slog through the jargon-filled analysis.