Astra Taylor Libri

What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a “New Civil Rights Leader” (LA Times), provides surprising answers. There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of thieving plutocrats in the White House to campaign finance and gerrymandering, it is clear that democracy—specifically the principle of government by and for the people—is not living up to its promise. In Democracy Might Not Exist Astra Taylor shows that real democracy—fully inclusive and completely egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West, Danielle Allen, and Slavoj Zizek, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if the those outcomes, whatever they may be—peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry—can be achieved by non-democratic means? Or if an election leads to a terrible outcome? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? The inherent paradoxes are unnamed and unrecognized. By teasing them, Democracy Might not Exist offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, and why democracy is so hard to realize.

An incisive collection of essays from an author who is consistently ahead of the curve.

From a cutting-edge cultural commentator, a bold and brilliant challenge to cherished notions of the internet as the great leveler of our age.

Did democracy ever exist? Why is it no longer possible?

When a plague wipes out most of the world’s male population and civilization crumbles, women struggle to build an agrarian community in the English countryside. Imagine a plague that brings society to a standstill by killing off most of the men on Earth. The few men who survive descend into lechery and atavism. Meanwhile, a group of women (accompanied by one virtuous male survivor) leave the wreckage of London to start fresh, establishing a communally run agrarian outpost. But their sexist society hasn’t permitted most of them to learn any useful skills—will the commune survive their first winter? This is the bleak world imagined in 1913 by English writer J. D. Beresford—one that has particular resonance for the planet’s residents in the 2020s. This edition of A World of Women offers twenty-first century readers a new look at a neglected classic. Beresford introduces us to the solidly bourgeois, prim and proper Gosling family. As once-bustling London shuts down—Parliament closes, factories grind to a halt, nature reclaims stone and steel—the paterfamilias Mr. Gosling adopts a life of libertinism while his daughters in the countryside struggle to achieve a radically transformed and improved egalitarian and feminist future.

Writer, filmmaker, and organizer Astra Taylor takes a curious, critical, and ultimately hopeful look at the uniquely modern concept of insecurity. These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially precarious, overwhelmed and anxious, and worried about the future. While millions endure the stress of struggling to make ends meet, in reality, the status quo isn't working for anyone, even the affluent and comparatively privileged; they, too, are deeply insecure. What is going on? The Age of Insecurity exposes how seemingly disparate crises -- our suffering mental health and rising inequality, the ecological emergency, and the threat of fascism -- are tied to the fact that our social order runs on insecurity. Across disparate sectors, from policing and the military to the wellness and beauty industries, the systems that promise us security instead actively undermine it. We are all made insecure on purpose, and our endless striving shapes how we feel about ourselves and others -- including what we believe is personally and collectively possible. The Age of Insecurity sheds new light on our contemporary predicament, exposing the psychological and political costs of the insecurity-generating status quo, while proposing ways to forge a new path forward.