About the Book
Capitalists and Conquerors is a series of path-breaking essays in the political sociology of education on topics hotly debated within the educational community. In this volume Peter McLaren addresses some of the most daunting political challenges of the current times, including the globalization of capitalism, the United States' drive towards world domination, strategies, tactics and models of resistance to neoliberalism and the ravages of empire-building, the role of the educator as a social agent and public citizen, the purposes and possibilities of public schooling, and the struggle for socialism. As a Marxist-humanist philosopher and social theorist, McLaren is able to offer new philosophical premises and socialist principles for building an alternative to capitalism. The passion, poetry and fierce political conviction for which McLaren is known is very much present in this volume.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Capitalists and Conquers: An Introduction Part 3 Part I: The Future of Critical Pedagogy Chapter 4 Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Neoliberal Globalization Chapter 5 Revolutionary Pedagogy in Postrevolutionary Times: Rethinking the Political Economy of Critical Education Part 6 Part II: On Class, Culture, and Difference Chapter 7 Paul Willis, Class Consciousness, and Critical Pedagogy: Toward a Socialist Future Chapter 8 After the Box People: The Labor-Capital Relation as Class Constitution and Its Consequences for Marxist Educational Theory and Human Resistance Chapter 9 Revolutionary Ecologies: Ecosocialism and Critical Pedagogy Part 10 Part III: Neocons and Neoliberalism Chapter 11 The Legend of the Bush Gang: Imperialism, War, and Propaganda Chapter 12 The Dialectics of Terrorism: A Marxist Riposte Chapter 13 God's Cowboy Warrior: Chrisitianity, Globalization, and the False Prophets of Imperialism Chapter 14 Postscript
About the Author :
A renowned Marxist-humanist philosopher and social theorist, and one of the architects of the field that has come to be known internationally as critical pedagogy, Peter McLaren is one of the most influential and respected educationalists in the world today. A professor of urban education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, he is the author and editor of over forty books that have been translated into fifteen languages.
Review :
In the dismal wake of the re-election of George W. Bush to the most powerful office in the world—a political scandal made possible by a resurgence of religious fundamentalism and Paleolithic conservatism, a hysterical fear of terrorism, and manufactured ignorance through corporate-controlled media and enfeebled school systems—the most urgent and fundamental issue of the day is advancing a radical pedagogy that can promote critical thinking, autonomy, and radical democracy. In this timely new work, Peter McLaren once again demonstrates why he is a leading critical theorist and a beacon of intelligence in dark times.
This book is important. McLaren's passionate poetry and principle, intellectual power and experience, pull neo-liberal global imperial Capital apart, developing and implanting critical consciousness and praxis against barbarism in the service of equality, humanity and the peoples of the world. This book—its ideas and passion—are powerful tools in the Egalitarian Conquering of Capital. This really is advancing over the barricades and not just building them.
Drawing from the rich archive of Paulo Freire's example and the critical Marxist tradition, McLaren's anti-imperialist pedagogy is a powerful and timely challenge to the postmodernist celebration of the U.S. Empire, transnational hybridity, and other cultural commodities marketed in the academy. Secure a copy of this book as a weapon to heighten the fight against the terror of corporate globalization. Everyone needs it!
Critical educators are currently faced with a plethora of complexities. McLaren's volume extends our work by asking us to examine the possibilities of a radical critical pedagogy that elaborates, explores, and revitalizes our praxis in a meaningful way. McLaren continues to unmask wealth, power, and privilege, extends the work of Marx, Gramsci, and Freire, and guides us in viewing the realities of corporate colonization, the neo-liberal regime, the problematic of Empire, and the role of education. This book is a must read for educators and activists willing to make a difference in the lives of learners, community, and the democratic sphere.
I never cease to be amazed by McLaren’s ability to bravely forge—in his uniquely poetic, eloquent, impassioned and cross-disciplinary way—beyond the accepted borders of mainstream academic discourse. In this volume, through his no-holds-barred analyses of capital and its aftermath as we pillage our way toward the double digits of this new century, he continues to distinguish himself as one of North America’s leading Marxist scholars.
There is wide agreement among all shades of political opinion that we are witnessing a new age of imperialism. Opposition is widespread, but fragmented. All the more reason why Peter McLaren's articulate and powerful Marxist alternative of social justice and true equality be heard.
Critical pedagogy has flirted far too long with a domesticated postmodern cultural studies, and forgotten the everyday materiality of la grande misére and la petite misére. By examining the most compelling issues of the historical scene, Peter McLaren demonstrates in revolutionary fashion how to put material issues back on the agenda of critical pedagogy, and to understand and overcome the capitalist forces eroding the very foundations of life. A must read!
Capitalists and Conquerors: Critical Pedagogy Against Empire, is McLaren's most incisive book yet, rescuing critical pedagogy from the voids of liberalism and reinventing it as the most salient pedagogy for our times. This book will quickly become a contemporary classic, a must read for every student, teacher, and citizen of consciousness.
Peter McLaren's latest book is timely. It provides signposts for a critical education rooted in a historical materialist conception of the world. He combines insights from political economy and a range of cultural theories to furnish us with a critical education that confronts the all pervasive consumer-culture, neo-liberal and imperialist ideologies. Anyone committed to social justice must grab a copy of this book written by one of the world's leading critical educationists.
In his new and provocative book, Peter McLaren exhibits his hallmark of speaking truth to power, his compassion for those who continue to be dehumanized by the yoke of oppression, and his courage to dare to challenge all of us to imagine a less discriminatory and more humane world. This courageously written book must be read by everyone who yearns for social justice, equity, and democracy.
Peter McLaren proves once again why he is a national resource for social justice. In this provocative book, he makes clear what it means to link pedagogy to collective resistance, the overcoming of human suffering, and the politics of a socially just world.
Capitalists and Conquerors is a passionate critique of the militarization and corporatization of social life in all of its myriad dimensions, a searing indictment of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, and an urgent call to reclaim democracy through critical pedagogy and grassroots activism.
McLaren has crafted a book that follows in the footsteps of Paulo Freire and other leading pedagogical thinkers. This is a book that not only educators need to engage, but students, teachers, intellectuals, and activists from all walks of life.
This is a timely and urgent set of essays by the leading critical educator of our day... In these ominous times we need such a lucid voice.
Exemplary of the new internationalist pedagogy. . . . McLaren is in the vanguard of the class struggle against empire because he argues education can become the development of human energy as an end in itself only by ending the rule of capital.
Most relevant for adult educators .... are McLaren's contributions to the development of a revolutionary critical pedagogy centering on Marx's Labor Theory of Value; the implications of this for educational practice; and the use of Marxism to make new inroads in our understanding of the relationship between race, class, and gender. McLaren's perspective and its application... provide both an innovative and necessary framework.
