Violence Is Deeply Rooted in American Culture

Staff / Truthdig Jan 22, 2013 The gun violence figures flooding the media in the wake of the Newtown massacre are startling, "but they do not tell us enough about the cult and spectacle of violence in American society. Nor do they make visible the myriad of forces that has produced a country drenched in bloodshed and violence," Henry Giroux told C.J. Polychroniou in a Truthout interview. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

The War Against Teachers in Dark Times

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Dec 18, 2012 It is ironic, in the unfolding nightmare in Newtown, Conn., that only in the midst of tragedy are teachers celebrated in ways that acknowledge the vital role they play every day in both protecting and educating our children. What is repressed in these moments is that teachers have been under attack by right-wing conservatives, religious fundamentalists and centrist Democrats since the beginning of the 1980s. Dig deeper ( 26 Min. Read )

Henry A. Giroux: The Age of Neoliberal Terrorism

By Angelo Letizia, Figure/Ground Communication Dec 3, 2012 "Public institutions are being attacked because they are public, offer spaces for producing critical thought, emphasize human needs over economic needs, and because they are one of the few vital institutions left that can function as democratic public spheres," the critic and Truthout contributor said in a recent interview. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

War on Youth

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Dec 3, 2012 In a second annual lecture for the Histories of Violence project, professor, critic and political theorist Henry A. Giroux talks about a subject in which he’s become expert: the systematic ways that governments across the globe visit violence on young people. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Beyond the Dead End of American Electoral Politics

Staff / Truthdig Nov 6, 2012 As Hurricane Sandy swept through the Eastern Seaboard, there was much concern about how it would affect the presidential elections. The implication is that a natural disaster may undermine the electoral process. But the equation of the electoral process with the highest measure of democracy rests on two mistaken assumptions. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Neoliberal Attack on Education

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Oct 17, 2012 The democratic mission of public education is under assault by a conservative right-wing reform culture in which students are viewed as human capital in schools that are to be administered by market-driven forces. Dig deeper ( 27 Min. Read )

Why Don’t Americans Care About Democracy at Home?

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Oct 3, 2012 The American public has remained largely silent, if not also complicitous, with the rise of a neoliberal version of authoritarianism. Dig deeper ( 28 Min. Read )

The Chicago Teachers Strike: Challenging Democracy’s Demise

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Sep 15, 2012 What the world is witnessing in Chicago as thousands of teachers, staff and support personnel strike is the emergence of a revolutionary ideal that opposes the right of corporations and markets to define the purpose and meaning of public education and the debasement of educational leadership and teaching as a bulwark of democracy. Dig deeper ( 20 Min. Read )

The Quebec Student Protest Movement and the Power of the Radical Imagination

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Aug 28, 2012 To understand the shared concerns of youthful protesters worldwide and the global nature of the forces they are fighting, it is crucial to situate diverse student protests within a broader analysis of global capital and the changing nature of its assaults on young people. Dig deeper ( 37 Min. Read )

Beyond the Politics of the Big Lie

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Jun 19, 2012 The American public is suffering from an education deficit; a growing dearth of critical thinking which generates the ideology of the big lie -- the myth that the free-market system is the only mechanism available to safeguard democracy and ensure human freedom. Dig deeper ( 26 Min. Read )

Zombie Politics: Dangerous Authoritarianism or Shrinking Democracy – Part II

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout May 4, 2012 It is difficult to imagine how a society in which a financial elite and megacorporations control almost every aspect of politics could possibly be mistaken for a democracy. Dig deeper ( 18 Min. Read )

Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life

By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout May 2, 2012 Warlike values and the social mind-set they legitimize have become the primary currency of our market-driven culture, which takes as its model a Darwinian shark tank in which only the strong survive. Dig deeper ( 20 Min. Read )