An American Utopia consists of the Fredric Jameson essay by that name and a number of responses to his ideas, followed by an epilogue by Jameson. This is a dense but accessible book which should stir everyone to some level of discomfort whether one agrees or disagrees with Jameson's proposal.

I won't try to elaborate on what various terms mean in the book, the attempts I saw in other reviews should have been labeled as their opinions about what the concepts are rather than a hit and miss pseudo-lecture. I found every "explanation" or bit of historical background lacking, as mine would likely be, for the simple reason that there is no brief overview except from a selective viewpoint and I refuse to limit a new reader in this area to a not-wrong-but-not-right overview. One can read this without the background and still understand the arguments as they apply to the current political/economic situation. This does not have to be an academic exercise but rather one open to any interested party.

Jameson generally points out the many problems with so-called democracy, namely that it is all in service to capitalism and the illusion of a free market. He argues for a dual-state approach and uses conscription into the military as a way to create a viable second state. There is not a great deal of logistic detail on how this might be accomplished but the end product, from Jameson's description, sounds significantly better than the miserable state of affairs we are currently in.

Whether you find yourself drawn to western Marxism or not this would be a valuable book to read. The responses to Jameson are not all supportive and point out many of the proposal's weaknesses or unanswered questions. In other words, this book is not just for those of us who for decades have been interested in Marxist thought but for those who are not interested in Marx specifically but are interested in looking at all the options to try to turn this neoliberal mess around, or at least slow the destruction of life on Earth.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )