Libraries, Classrooms, and the Interests of Democracy: Marking the Limits of Neoliberalism

Libraries, Classrooms, and the Interests of Democracy:  Marking the Limits of Neoliberalism by Dr. John Buschman, Dean, University Libraries, has just been released by Scarecrow/Rowman & Littlefield (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810885295). As the book’s description notes: In Libraries, Classrooms, and the Interests of Democracy: Marking the Limits of Neoliberalism, Dr. Buschman details the connections between our educative institutions and democracy, and the resources within democratic theory reflecting on the tensions between marketing, advertising, consumption, and democracy. Drawing on wide scholarship to explore some of the history of democratic theory and its intertwinements with capitalism, the author helps the reader think about how democracies can deal with the challenges of this current historical phase. The complex arguments of de Tocqueville, Dewey, Marx, and many others help clarify how the market has pierced classrooms and libraries with advertising and marketing—and why this is of concern in the interests of democracy.