Chaos Agent Steve Bannon and the New American Fascism

A close look at Steve Bannon's long career working at the crumbling heart of core institutions of US power that shows us the historical context and present contours of the rising spectre of American fascism.

Steve Bannon is often identified as the strategic brain behind the rise of Trumpism. But his personal savvy and ideological bombast are not alone responsible for his success at mobilizing masses of Breitbart readers, War Room podcast listeners, and Republican voters in support of a far-right political insurgency in the US. Chaos Agent: Steve Bannon and the New American Fascism shows how Bannon became the communications hub and agent provocateur of the neofascist MAGA wing of the American right.

The key to Bannon's success is his mobilization of fantasy and emotion on a mass scale. His method is madness--the triggering of chaos and disruption via paranoid fantasies and apocalyptic visions. Fears of economic collapse and terror of the return of the colonized and oppressed haunt his every word. He works to connect the far right with mainstream Republicans for the purpose of derailing the ordinary life of governing. The goal is to "flood the zone" of media and political life with enough confusion to create an opening for a new far right order--the outlines of which are perpetually unclear.

Bannon's long career at the center of American power--on Wall Street, in Hollywood, as a data and surveillance operative, and as a fundraiser with global networks--has shaped his vision and provided him with the tools to reach and appeal to millions. His lifelong tour through the collapsing institutions of American imperialism and global neoliberal capitalism have positioned him to see and exploit broad social, cultural, economic, and political forces currently roiling the body politic. Bannon is not the originator or director of forces behind the rise of worldwide autocratic populism, or the master of the fascist feelings feeding them. But he is an unusually illuminating prism for analyzing and understanding the spectre of fascism before us today.

Lisa Duggan is a journalist, activist, and Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis at New York University. She is author of Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Sensationalism and American Modernity and Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy, coauthor with Nan Hunter of Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture, and coeditor with Lauren Berlant of Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and National Interest. Her most recent book, Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and Neoliberal Greed, was published in the book series she co-edits at University of California Press, "American Studies Now." She was president of the American Studies Association during 2014-2015.