Late Modern Transformations: A Cultural History of Acceleration, 1960-2011

How should late modernity be defined, and its history interpreted? This book critically reflects upon the dynamics and disruptions of transformative change that occurred between the mid-20th century to the early-21st, focusing on themes of political economy, culture, war and terrorism, and the growing conflict between material progress and its impact on the natural world. Introducing the trope of 'acceleration', the irrepressible dynamics of production and exploitation that stimulate modern progress, this book shows how acceleration has intensified over those few decades, and how this intensity has increasingly provoked historical interpretation. Late Modernity provides a synoptic analysis of issues and developments emblematic of complex changes including the rise of neoliberalism, the introduction of the Anthropocene and new narratives of self-expression. Demonstrating how these transformations are rooted in the cultural sixties, and tracing their acceleration over the following decades, Late Modernity reflects on the instability of globalised change, which has manifested in outbursts of terrorism, a widening wealth divide and the advance of artificial intelligence. As the human acceleration of progress has come to dominate and disorder the world's natural systems, what can we learn from these transformative changes and how can we better harness 'progress'?

Table of Contents:
Introduction: 'Die Wende': The Late Modern Fin de Siècle 1. 'Play the space': The Cultural Sixties and the Narrative Turn to Late Modernity 2. 'Speed up the work': The Global Acceleration of Neoliberalism 3. Discomposing Sovereignties: Late Modern Terror 4. Something More: Late Modern Culture 5. 'A strange luminescence': Progress and Nature Conclusion: Welcome to the Anthropocene

About the Author :
Mark Hearn is Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, Australia. His research focuses on key transformative periods of historical change, including the fin de siècle and late modernity. He has published several scholarly articles in The Historical Journal, Gender and History, Rethinking History, Journal of Australian Studies and History Australia and is the author of The fin de siècle Imagination in Australia (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Review :
Mark Hearn has succeeded in writing one of those history books that combine thought-provoking arguments with an in-depth introduction to key historical epochs. Focussing on the idea of 'acceleration', his global history of the period between the 1960s and the 2000s provides a fascinating journey through a series of transformative changes in the political economy, the social fabric and the cultural representations of the modern world in the 'planetary age' (Dipesh Chakrabarty). In particular, the incommensurability of the huge material progress made by mankind and the impending planetary disasters awaiting it, feature prominently on these pages.