From the writings of an Italian political theorist more than a century ago to the observation that there were no generic structural changes in popular music in the first decade of the 21st century, ‘Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back)’ (Verso, £16.99, ISBN 9781786633149) is an extraordinary extended essay on the evolution of political power, finance and the role technology has played in that.
A few short years ago - before the Trump presidency, Brexit and Covid came along - we knew where we were, say Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams. Well, if we didn’t exactly know where we were, we knew where we weren’t, because the way the world spun was based on the economics of neoliberalism. It was structured and obeyed rules. There was one (admittedly broad) church and everyone in the western hemisphere worshipped there. Then it changed. Not only did it change, but unthinkable things started to happen.
It was a long...