Muskism

A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age



Who on earth is Elon Musk and what is he doing? Is he a hero, a villain, or does he swing constantly between those two poles? According to the constant media gush driven by his every act and pronouncement, Musk is best understood in personal terms. This book argues differently. Rather than seeing Musk as an individual, it sees him as an avatar of something called Muskism: a playbook for our new postliberal age.

It’s not that Musk himself holds a coherent set of beliefs; you could say his life is one long improvisation. And he’s certainly never used the word Muskism – just as, a century ago, Henry Ford never used Fordism to define his own postliberal modernity. In exploring the forces that have shaped Musk, from South Africa to Silicon Valley, Space X to DOGE, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff outline the motifs and practices that have come to dominate our own crisis-ridden world.

Muskism, they show, speaks the language of crisis and emergency to invoke a less human future: where humans are purged from the productive process and, through social media and video games, merged with the machine. This is a worldview in which the technocrat is king; which piggybacks on the state to achieve supremacy; and in which only a select few deserve salvation. If you enter, this book warns you, you will grind and you will live in the shadow of one man – but the rewards could be priceless and the alternative might be extinction.

Review

A searing analysis of Elon Musk… Impressive and unrelenting, this grapples with a destructive ideology that seems poised to consume everything ― Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

A searching look into Elon Musk’s quest to rule the universe... Muskism is a doctrine of wealth for the few and political and economic domination: SpaceX in space, X and Grok online, Starlink on every phone… Dystopian isn’t a strong enough word for the technocratic future the authors prophesy in this bleak but urgent book ― Kirkus

Slobodian is an academic historian and public intellectual. I look to him for accessible but probing takes on Cold War neoliberals, the failings of globalism, and–you guessed it, a certain world-cratering slimeball in Silicon Valley. Ben Tarnoff is a leading tech writer, known for his clarion call to deprivatize the internet. So these two feel like the perfect guides to help a layman understand the Musk phenomenon ― Literary Hub, “Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026”

Muskism cuts straight to the core of the man and the moment -- Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification

Impeccably researched and splendidly written, Muskism introduces us to a world full of promise and fear -- Branko Milanovic, author of The Great Global Transformation

A whirlwind tour through the plans and inspirations of the world's most self-important man -- Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto

This book is brilliant in all the ways Elon Musk is not: unflinchingly honest, actually humorous, and deeply humane. Unlike their subject, these authors punch up, not down, and they do so with erudition and precision. A wholly original and insightful analysis that deserves to be read by the billions of people impacted by Musk’s pathological quest for power and wealth -- Astra Taylor, author of The Age of Insecurity

The bad news is that Elon Musk is the most powerful and influential man alive―the world-soul astride a Cybertruck. The good news is that Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian have written this sharp, stimulating guide not just to the man and his ideology but to the paradigm and ‘operating system’ he represents. Forget the hagiographies and conspiracy theories, this is the only book you need to understand Musk and the world he's seeking to usher in -- Max Read, editor of Read Max

About the Author

Quinn Slobodian (Author)
Quinn Slobodian is Professor of International History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. His books include Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy and, most recently, Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right.

Ben Tarnoff (Author)
Ben Tarnoff is a writer and technologist based in Massachusetts and is the author of Internet for the People and the co-author of Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do ― And How They Do It. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, and has also written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New Republic, among other publications.