The Choice of Civil War
Neoliberal Strategy and the Politics of the Enemy
Published on 20. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-80429-618-9 (ISBN)
Description
Margaret Thatcher's mantra 'there is no alternative' was not a statement of historical fact but a strategic objective. She shared with Hayek, Pinochet, Mises, Trump, Bolsonaro, and Macron a commitment to utilizing ideology, constitutional economics, labour discipline, and culture wars, as well as police and military force, to prevent popular resistance from organizing. Whatever their doctrinal differences, they all see the state's tight control of democracy as the most effective means of defeating egalitarian alternatives.
Neoliberalism persists today thanks to its ability to defeat opponents while deepening social and cultural regression.
Neoliberalism persists today thanks to its ability to defeat opponents while deepening social and cultural regression.
Reviews / Votes
A trenchant and provocative study of the symbolic, legal and material violence that has been deployed over the past half-century to secure the rule of capital across the planet. The Choice of Civil War breaks with antiseptic images of neoliberalism as the production of docile subjects or the marketization of everyday life, revealing it as the theory and practice of class warfare. -- Alberto Toscano, author of <i>Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis</i>More details
Edition
Paperback original
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80429-618-9 (9781804296189)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Pierre Dardot | Haud Gueguen | Christian Laval
The Choice of Civil War
Neoliberal Strategy and the Politics of the Enemy
E-Book
01/2026
Verso Books
€28.99
Available for download
Persons
Pierre Sauvetre is a sociologist at the University of Paris Nanterre. He works on Michel Foucault, Murray Bookchin, the commons and communalism. He is the author of Murray Bookchin et l'objectif communocene, Paris, L'Atelier, 2024.
Haud Gueguen is a philosopher at the Conservatoire des arts et metiers in Paris. She works on the epistemology of the possible in the social sciences and the genealogy of neoliberal anthropology. She is the author, with Laurent Jeanpierre, of La perspective du possible, Paris, La Decouverte, 2022.
Christian Laval is a sociologist at the University of Paris Nanterre. He has worked on the genealogy of utilitarianism, the history of sociology, the thought of Marx and neoliberalism and education. Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval jointly published The New Way of the World and Never Ending Nightmare.
Pierre Sauvetre is a sociologist at the University of Paris Nanterre. He works on Michel Foucault, Murray Bookchin, the commons and communalism. He is the author of Foucault, Paris, Ellipses, 2017.
Haud Gueguen is a philosopher at the Conservatoire des arts et metiers in Paris. She works on the epistemology of the possible in the social sciences and the genealogy of neoliberal anthropology. She is the author, with Laurent Jeanpierre, of La perspective du possible, Paris, La Decouverte, 2022.
Christian Laval is a sociologist at the University of Paris Nanterre. He has worked on the genealogy of utilitarianism, the history of sociology, the thought of Marx and neoliberalism and education. Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval jointly published The New Way of the World and Never Ending Nightmare.
Pierre Sauvetre is a sociologist at the University of Paris Nanterre. He works on Michel Foucault, Murray Bookchin, the commons and communalism. He is the author of Foucault, Paris, Ellipses, 2017.