Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
As part of our HM series recorded in October, 2025, writer Anton Jäger sat down with Oliver Eagleton to discuss his new book Hyperpolitics – now available from Verso Books.
Interview was recorded at the Verso office in London during the Historical Materialism Conference, 2025.
What happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the “end of history” and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post–Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private passions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so inconsequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.
Hyperpolitics is available now from Verso Books:
versobooks.com/products/3460-hyperpolitics?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=hyperpolitics_hm
00:00 Introduction
00:29 Defining Hyperpolitics
07:36 Understanding Hyperpolitics in relation to the rise and fall of Left Populism
13:59 How the Right is winning in the hyperpolitical era
22:49 On the Right's ability to achieve its institutional aims
29:10 The lower ambitions of the populist Right
34:51 On European deindustrialization
38:23 The challenges in reviving a Left politics
46:42 Could mass politicization produce institutional consequences that have yet to be seen?
As part of our HM series recorded in October, 2025, writer Anton Jäger sat down with Oliver Eagleton to discuss his new book Hyperpolitics – now available from Verso Books.
Interview was recorded at the Verso office in London during the Historical Materialism Conference, 2025.
What happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the “end of history” and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post–Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private passions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so inconsequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.
Hyperpolitics is available now from Verso Books:
versobooks.com/products/3460-hyperpolitics?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=hyperpolitics_hm
00:00 Introduction
00:29 Defining Hyperpolitics
07:36 Understanding Hyperpolitics in relation to the rise and fall of Left Populism
13:59 How the Right is winning in the hyperpolitical era
22:49 On the Right's ability to achieve its institutional aims
29:10 The lower ambitions of the populist Right
34:51 On European deindustrialization
38:23 The challenges in reviving a Left politics
46:42 Could mass politicization produce institutional consequences that have yet to be seen?
