What do you think?
Rate this book
The Violence of Organized Forgetting: Thinking Beyond America's Disimagination Machine
"Giroux refuses to give in or give up. The Violence of Organized Forgetting is a clarion call to imagine a different America--just, fair, and caring--and then to struggle for it."--Bill Moyers "Henry Giroux has accomplished an exciting, brilliant intellectual dissection of America's somnambulent voyage into anti-democratic political depravity. His analysis of the plight of America's youth is particularly heartbreaking. If we have a shred of moral fibre left in our beings, Henry Giroux sounds the trumpet to awaken it to action to restore to the nation a civic soul."--Dennis J. Kucinich, former US Congressman and Presidential candidate "Giroux lays out a blistering critique of an America governed by the tenets of a market economy. . . . He cites French philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman's concept of the 'disimagination machine' to describe a culture and pedagogical philosophy that short-circuits citizens' ability to think critically, leaving the generation now reaching adulthood unprepared for an 'inhospitable' world. Picking apart the current malaise of 21st-century digital disorder, Giroux describes a world in which citizenship is replaced by consumerism and the functions of engaged governance are explicitly beholden to corporations."-- Publishers Weekly In a series of essays that explore the intersections of politics, popular culture, and new forms of social control in American society, Henry A. Giroux explores how state and corporate interests have coalesced to restrict civil rights, privatize what's left of public institutions, and diminish our collective capacity to participate as engaged citizens of a democracy. From the normalization of mass surveillance, lockdown drills, and a state of constant war, to corporate bailouts paired with public austerity programs that further impoverish struggling families and communities, Giroux looks to flashpoints in current events to reveal how the forces of government and business are at work to generate a culture of mass forgetfulness, obedience and conformity. In The Violence of Organized Forgetting , Giroux deconstructs the stories created to control us while championing the indomitable power of education, democracy, and hope. Henry A. Giroux is a world-renowned educator, author and public intellectual. He currently holds the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department and a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Ryerson University. The Toronto Star has named Henry Giroux “one of the twelve Canadians changing the way we think." More Praise for Henry A. Giroux's The Violence of Organized Forgetting : "I can think of no book in the last ten years as essential as this. I can think of no other writer who has so clinically dissected the crisis of modern life and so courageously offered a possibility for real material change."--John Steppling, playwright, and author of The Shaper, Dogmouth, and Sea of Cortez "A timely study if there ever was one, The Violence of Organized Forgetting is a milestone in the struggle to repossess the common sense expropriated by the American power elite to be redeployed in its plot to foil the popular resistance against rising social injustice and decay of political democracy."--Zygmunt Bauman, author of Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All? among other works Prophetic and eloquent, Giroux gives us, in this hard-hitting and compelling book, the dark scenario of Western crisis where ignorance has become a virtue and wealth and power the means of ruthless abuse of workers, of the minorities and of immigrants. However, he remains optimistic in his affirmation of radical humanity, determined as he is to relate himself to a fair and caring world unblemished by anti-democratic political depravity."--Shelley Walia, Frontline
280 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2014
34 people are currently reading
763 people want to read
About the author
Henry A. Giroux
125 books227 followersAmerican cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory.
A high-school social studies teacher in Barrington, Rhode Island for six years, Giroux has held positions at Boston University, Miami University, and Penn State University. In 2005, Giroux began serving as the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Giroux has published more than 35 books and 300 academic articles, and is published widely throughout education and cultural studies literature. Since arriving at McMaster, Giroux has been a featured faculty lecturer, and has published nine books, including his most recent work, The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex.
Routledge named Giroux as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period in 2002.
A high-school social studies teacher in Barrington, Rhode Island for six years, Giroux has held positions at Boston University, Miami University, and Penn State University. In 2005, Giroux began serving as the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Giroux has published more than 35 books and 300 academic articles, and is published widely throughout education and cultural studies literature. Since arriving at McMaster, Giroux has been a featured faculty lecturer, and has published nine books, including his most recent work, The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex.
Routledge named Giroux as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period in 2002.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 11, 2017
The poetically intriguing title alone grabbed my attention on this one. However, I fully knew what I was getting into when I started reading this book. For this is by far anything resembling an uplifting feel-good read. It’s more of a chemically induced psychotropic nervous breakdown of all of your happy little delusions about life in the U.S. deconstructed into forcefully stated intrusive thoughts that won’t let you alone, even long after you’ve stopped reading. To be sure, the infamous paranoid schizophrenic Sci-Fi writer Phillip K. Dick would have loved this book as it mirrors his bleak worldview, and then some.
That said, it is an absolute given that this book stands no chance of changing any diehard Republican or Tea Party members ideas about politics or economics, which are often taken for the same exact thing these days. It is too strongly opinionated to the left for those set in their ways to get past the first chapter, which literally thunders and storms at the reader in no uncertain language. Thus, it is only preaching to choir here and I question why the author needed to come on so strongly. I understand the man’s passion and urgency on this subject but the intensity in which he makes these horrible facts clear makes even someone that already agrees with him want to crawl away to a dark corner and rock back and forth like a traumatized autistic child.
Of course, this is merely my own personal reaction to the book. Others may appreciate its raging opinions and dire facts for breakfast, while I had to ease my way into it. I admit that I’m no stranger to these thoughts and opinions myself but having someone reaffirm them somehow seemed to rattle my cage much louder than I cared to have done. Maybe, this is the sole purpose of the book, to reawaken those that have drifted comfortably into a waking dream state?
Whatever the case may be, I did find that the force of opinions started to ease up a bit the more as I read on. Whether the author purposefully softened these up or it was through my own slow acclimation to the subject, I’m unsure of. Regardless, I was for the most part already fairly familiar with the majority of this book’s theme and subject but there were a few revelations for me here that made the book well worth reading.
Although the author, Henry A. Giroux, is apparently one of the most highly regarded intellects of our age, I find that there are no real answers provided here. To be fair, I don’t think anyone has any concrete ones. Naturally, adequately defining the problem is the first step and here Giroux excels in pointing them out as well as some of the reasons and motivations behind them. Overall, I found it hard to argue him on most things and whenever I tried the ones I came up with mostly sounded just like weak excuses and justifications for the status quo than anything else.
What I wholeheartedly agree with here was the focus placed upon the state of education in this country and what this holds for our future. There is an entire chapter on it here as well it seemingly cropping up in nearly every other one as well. If for nothing else this book should be read for the sake of raising awareness of our broken education system. In my opinion, it is the linchpin to all of our current ills. Fixing this problem could lead to a significant change in how things are currently being run. It could also lead to nothing but trouble…but in a good way that is better than the Orwellian idiocracy we are currently facing.
I also love and respect City Lights Publishing for putting out books like this. It’s one of the few that still consistently releases challenging and worthwhile reading. However, this particular book seriously needed a good editor in the worse way. Strictly on the typos alone, which this book is nearly riddled with. The integrity of any publication is difficult to take seriously when there are this many mistakes to overlook. It’s a crying shame and hopefully future editions will rectify this.
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
That said, it is an absolute given that this book stands no chance of changing any diehard Republican or Tea Party members ideas about politics or economics, which are often taken for the same exact thing these days. It is too strongly opinionated to the left for those set in their ways to get past the first chapter, which literally thunders and storms at the reader in no uncertain language. Thus, it is only preaching to choir here and I question why the author needed to come on so strongly. I understand the man’s passion and urgency on this subject but the intensity in which he makes these horrible facts clear makes even someone that already agrees with him want to crawl away to a dark corner and rock back and forth like a traumatized autistic child.
Of course, this is merely my own personal reaction to the book. Others may appreciate its raging opinions and dire facts for breakfast, while I had to ease my way into it. I admit that I’m no stranger to these thoughts and opinions myself but having someone reaffirm them somehow seemed to rattle my cage much louder than I cared to have done. Maybe, this is the sole purpose of the book, to reawaken those that have drifted comfortably into a waking dream state?
Whatever the case may be, I did find that the force of opinions started to ease up a bit the more as I read on. Whether the author purposefully softened these up or it was through my own slow acclimation to the subject, I’m unsure of. Regardless, I was for the most part already fairly familiar with the majority of this book’s theme and subject but there were a few revelations for me here that made the book well worth reading.
Although the author, Henry A. Giroux, is apparently one of the most highly regarded intellects of our age, I find that there are no real answers provided here. To be fair, I don’t think anyone has any concrete ones. Naturally, adequately defining the problem is the first step and here Giroux excels in pointing them out as well as some of the reasons and motivations behind them. Overall, I found it hard to argue him on most things and whenever I tried the ones I came up with mostly sounded just like weak excuses and justifications for the status quo than anything else.
What I wholeheartedly agree with here was the focus placed upon the state of education in this country and what this holds for our future. There is an entire chapter on it here as well it seemingly cropping up in nearly every other one as well. If for nothing else this book should be read for the sake of raising awareness of our broken education system. In my opinion, it is the linchpin to all of our current ills. Fixing this problem could lead to a significant change in how things are currently being run. It could also lead to nothing but trouble…but in a good way that is better than the Orwellian idiocracy we are currently facing.
I also love and respect City Lights Publishing for putting out books like this. It’s one of the few that still consistently releases challenging and worthwhile reading. However, this particular book seriously needed a good editor in the worse way. Strictly on the typos alone, which this book is nearly riddled with. The integrity of any publication is difficult to take seriously when there are this many mistakes to overlook. It’s a crying shame and hopefully future editions will rectify this.
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
September 14, 2014
First things first, I would never have ordinarily read this book. A member of my book group picked it up in the famous City Lights bookshop on a recent visit to San Francisco and decided it would make a good book for the rest of us to read.
Most of the group, including me, are left-leaning liberal types so, before reading it, I imagined this book would be playing to the gallery. And, to an extent, it does. Giroux catalogues America's many ills, all of which are well known to anyone who follows world events, and seen in black and white it is a damning and alarming list: a neoliberal elite systematically disenfranchising the poor, the elderly, the young, people of disputed residency and people of color; America's obsession with violence and guns; mass state surveillance; the war on terror; the large number of citizens residing in prisons; rampant consumerism; assembly line education; job insecurity; increased militarisation; reduced social mobility; the treatment of Edward Snowden; Guantanamo Bay; the shameful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and so on.
Giroux writes in a very strident style but one that is also overly intellectual and peppered with jargon. As I read it I wondered who Giroux hopes to reach with this book. Not only did the sociological jargon mean little to me, it is also very repetitive. It's like sitting next to a drunk professor ranting about the state of America. He's clearly very bright and well informed but his points quickly become repetitive, his language incoherent and before long I wanted to make my excuses.
So what exactly is Giroux trying to say? And to whom? Once I'd fought my way (OK, frequently skimmed my way) through the forest of jargon (never explained) and references to numerous other theorists, what is Giroux's solution? In the last chapter Giroux suggests hope. Riiight. Against the backdrop of the powerful elites so painstaking described by Giroux over 280 pages it's hard to see where that's going to get anyone. Indeed Giroux again spends most of the final chapter continuing to rake over America's ills and qualifying why "hope" is so hard to create and maintain.
Shouldn't I have felt angry and inspired by the end of this book? I actually felt depressed, bored and relieved to have finished. A missed opportunity.
Most of the group, including me, are left-leaning liberal types so, before reading it, I imagined this book would be playing to the gallery. And, to an extent, it does. Giroux catalogues America's many ills, all of which are well known to anyone who follows world events, and seen in black and white it is a damning and alarming list: a neoliberal elite systematically disenfranchising the poor, the elderly, the young, people of disputed residency and people of color; America's obsession with violence and guns; mass state surveillance; the war on terror; the large number of citizens residing in prisons; rampant consumerism; assembly line education; job insecurity; increased militarisation; reduced social mobility; the treatment of Edward Snowden; Guantanamo Bay; the shameful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and so on.
Giroux writes in a very strident style but one that is also overly intellectual and peppered with jargon. As I read it I wondered who Giroux hopes to reach with this book. Not only did the sociological jargon mean little to me, it is also very repetitive. It's like sitting next to a drunk professor ranting about the state of America. He's clearly very bright and well informed but his points quickly become repetitive, his language incoherent and before long I wanted to make my excuses.
So what exactly is Giroux trying to say? And to whom? Once I'd fought my way (OK, frequently skimmed my way) through the forest of jargon (never explained) and references to numerous other theorists, what is Giroux's solution? In the last chapter Giroux suggests hope. Riiight. Against the backdrop of the powerful elites so painstaking described by Giroux over 280 pages it's hard to see where that's going to get anyone. Indeed Giroux again spends most of the final chapter continuing to rake over America's ills and qualifying why "hope" is so hard to create and maintain.
Shouldn't I have felt angry and inspired by the end of this book? I actually felt depressed, bored and relieved to have finished. A missed opportunity.
November 21, 2025
“The stories that a society tells about itself are often a measure of how it imagines itself, how it values democracy, and how it anticipates its future. Such stories become integral not only to how people see themselves, but also how a society determines which lives are worth living, what modes of agency count, what lives matter, and what deaths should be grieved.”
Long winded and repetitive at times. Depressing and bleak, while also somehow being hopeful and optimistic.
Long winded and repetitive at times. Depressing and bleak, while also somehow being hopeful and optimistic.
June 14, 2015
I rated this book 5 stars for truth telling. I rated this book 5 stars for showing where the conjunction/overlap lies between interests which have before been thought separate e.g., the environment, the economy, the culture, our democracy, our history. Now we must work together or perish.
Now I didn't say this book is enjoyable to read. Having my fears confirmed is not pleasure. I did feel little boost of joy every time the author made connections between things that were important to me, or affirmed one of my strong beliefs. I wish he had been able to present more examples of constructive solutions and hope. I wish.
This book is an urgent, widely encompassing, last-ditch effort to wake us up, to demand that we look reality in the eye. Only then might we do something. I believe that otherwise civilization and most life forms may be doomed. I believe that the only real joy in life for an honest person now comes in participating with others who are efforts to protect the world for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I'm going to get a copy of this to have on my Kindle because I got to tired of marking passages and trying to catalog them – quotes which I might want to use later. For that alone is a treasure
Now I didn't say this book is enjoyable to read. Having my fears confirmed is not pleasure. I did feel little boost of joy every time the author made connections between things that were important to me, or affirmed one of my strong beliefs. I wish he had been able to present more examples of constructive solutions and hope. I wish.
This book is an urgent, widely encompassing, last-ditch effort to wake us up, to demand that we look reality in the eye. Only then might we do something. I believe that otherwise civilization and most life forms may be doomed. I believe that the only real joy in life for an honest person now comes in participating with others who are efforts to protect the world for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I'm going to get a copy of this to have on my Kindle because I got to tired of marking passages and trying to catalog them – quotes which I might want to use later. For that alone is a treasure
February 15, 2015
Giroux has a very clear point of view that he is trying to articulate in this book. He doesn't like the level of militarization and state supervision that is happening. If you aren't on his page, you're just unable to see how manipulated you are by the controlling dealings of the 1%.
There are many aspects of this framework I buy into and care about and there are many aspects of this framework I but into and don't really care about.
If you recognize it for what it is, this is a pretty great book. Viroid is at his best when he is talking about the role of education, especially democratic education in resolving these problems. Giroux preaches a doctrine of collective liberation and active participation in democracy. Above all, Giroux remains hopeful that, collectively, we can move beyond the disimagination machine and find a better future.
There are many aspects of this framework I buy into and care about and there are many aspects of this framework I but into and don't really care about.
If you recognize it for what it is, this is a pretty great book. Viroid is at his best when he is talking about the role of education, especially democratic education in resolving these problems. Giroux preaches a doctrine of collective liberation and active participation in democracy. Above all, Giroux remains hopeful that, collectively, we can move beyond the disimagination machine and find a better future.
June 8, 2017
Seriously though, everyone I know has to read this book. Giroux manages to keep a tight focus on the neoliberal and neoconservative assault on public space and the intellect from a wide range of perspectives from crisis response, to lock down culture, to the corporate takeover of education. What's better is that it's rich in theoretical framework without getting bogged down in over-theoretical speech. It's accessible incredibly worthwhile. Read. This. Book.
December 26, 2025
A bit repetitive but def worth the read . I feel after the government shut down this book hit the nail on the head on what Neo liberalism and America is trying to do to the public , removing social services , dismantle education . At times this book def was sad but I loved how they wrapped up the end with hope, one of the quotes in the last chapter that I resonated with :
“Hope provides a potential register of resistance, a new language, a different understanding of society, and a view of the future in which governing authorities are fully accountable to and complaint with the will of the public, and not the other way around “
I feel we do see a change and hopefully it sticks , we see it with zorahns win in New York. I hope we see more like this and I hope we improve education and fight for it. A good read overall . It shines lights on stuff I didn’t know about either
“Hope provides a potential register of resistance, a new language, a different understanding of society, and a view of the future in which governing authorities are fully accountable to and complaint with the will of the public, and not the other way around “
I feel we do see a change and hopefully it sticks , we see it with zorahns win in New York. I hope we see more like this and I hope we improve education and fight for it. A good read overall . It shines lights on stuff I didn’t know about either
March 22, 2019
You have to appreciate the irony of a book titled 'the violence of organized forgetting' that engages in such breathtaking historical revisionism.
I don't know what imaginary world of vibrant and egalitarian public discourse Giroux thinks existed before 1980, but it sure doesn't resemble the actual history of the US of A.
Even setting aside the bizarre decision to valorize this imaginary past, it's also just a bunch of mailed in buzzwords jammed together, with zero rigor or attention to the egregious self-contradictions embedded throughout.
There is a lot of interesting work about neoliberalism. Giroux has written some of it. But this book is very much not included.
I don't know what imaginary world of vibrant and egalitarian public discourse Giroux thinks existed before 1980, but it sure doesn't resemble the actual history of the US of A.
Even setting aside the bizarre decision to valorize this imaginary past, it's also just a bunch of mailed in buzzwords jammed together, with zero rigor or attention to the egregious self-contradictions embedded throughout.
There is a lot of interesting work about neoliberalism. Giroux has written some of it. But this book is very much not included.
September 25, 2020
This book brought me down a path to read similar books and, in many ways, prepared me for what is going on in the United States right now. When I first started reading it, I didn't know anyone who was reading it, too. At every opportunity, I recommended it. The ideas contained need to be discussed. Not an easy, nor particularly pleasant read - but a necessary one.
July 11, 2017
Not a bad book--just a little broad. The whole book feels like a discussion my friends and I would have over beers. Guess I was hoping for something a little more focused.
October 1, 2017
Somewhat repetitive and in need of more detail at times but still compelling overall.
January 9, 2020
I didn't expect such a thorough dressing down critique of political parties, but it was honest, refreshing, and so many HELL YES moments.
November 25, 2020
It's become even more accurate with time.
January 31, 2021
Did not say “Neoliberal” enough.
February 7, 2024
some of the essays were tedious, but i'm glad i read this for the most part.
June 2, 2016
This was the first book by Giroux that I've read. I enjoyed some of his quotes Chris Hedges used in Empire of Illusion, so wanted to read Giroux. The substance of the book is substantial. The academic integrity is amazing, and Giroux is a beautiful seamstress of sentences. I enjoy long rambling sentences that unpack hours of deep meaning. It was a slow read, seeing as it took months to read 228 pages, but it was due to constant re-reading, annotating, and absorbing the information so I would never lose it, and allow the book to transform me. Which it has. I have about 5 other Giroux books now and will be reading him and other during the upcoming election cycle.
October 27, 2015
Ugh, what could have been an opportunity to deepen my knowledge about issues that affect the health, stability and future prospects for the population of the world instead turned out to be a repetitive screed that mostly retread observations that have been presented in a more balanced, informative and productive manner elsewhere. Extremely disappointed and left feeling like I had wasted my time and invested passion into feeding the authors ego.
April 21, 2016
A thought-provoking book. Giroux is overstated at times, as well as redundant and guilty of propping up a few straw-men to knock down. Even so, he presents some insightful observations and some challenging assessments. He makes a compelling case concerning the militarization of our country, the carceral state, and the disposability of the bottom 47% of income earners/residents of the United States. Definitely worth a read and consideration.
December 1, 2016
Fascinating critique of the institutionalized education and its failure to generate "critical thinking". A very good perception corrector to assist in identification of the false beliefs and attitudes of the product of the educational industry. Identifies in a prophetic manner, the failings of the education of the children and youth in our context today. Helps explain why Donald Trump is the president-elect in the United States of America 2016AD.
June 21, 2015
More than a little repetitive, this collection of essays could've used an editor. Giroux addresses important issues, but only on a surface level for the most part, which is a shame because when he does flirt with thoroughness the results are engaging and interesting (and, usefully polemic), if brief.
June 29, 2015
a poetic, incisive, and inspiring polemic...unfortunately, read as a whole, the redundancy of the essays gets to be frustrating... i would recommend reading a chapter a month or something, so the constant reiteration of the same points doesn't get on your nerves...
October 30, 2014
Despite some prosaic wanderings, this is a powerful book on hope, imagination, and what a just society might look like in the 21st century.
May 14, 2015
Depressing.
July 15, 2015
Despite repetitiveness, this is a poignant read.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews