'Gonzo brilliance ... unique and highly entertaining' Financial Times 'Revelatory reading' Adam
Tooze author of Crashed'After reading Quinn Slobodian's new book you are not likely to think
about capitalism the same way' Jacobin Look at a map of the world and you'll see a neat
patchwork of nation-states. But this is not where power actually resides. From the 1990s
onwards globalization has shattered the map leading to an explosion of new legal entities:
tax havens free ports city-states gated enclaves and special economic zones. These new
spaces are freed from ordinary forms of regulation taxation and mutual obligation - and with
them ultracapitalists believe that it is possible to escape the bonds of democratic government
and oversight altogether. Historian Quinn Slobodian follows the most notorious radical
libertarians - from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel - around the globe as they search for the
perfect home for their free market fantasy. The hunt leads from Hong Kong in the 1970s to South
Africa in the late days of apartheid from the neo-Confederate South to the medieval City of
London and finally into the world's oceans and war zones charting the relentless quest for a
blank slate where capitalism and democracy can be finally uncoupled. Crack-Up Capitalism is a
propulsive history of the recent past and an alarming view of our near future.
