We Have Never Been Woke is now officially available for pre-order

Preorders significantly influence the success and impact of a book. If you're interested in the work, reserve your copy now and tell others about it too!

Apr 15, 2024

I am pleased to report that my first book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, now has an official release date: October 8, 2024. Even better, hardcover editions are now available for preorder on Bookshop.org, Thriftbooks, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and through most other major retailers. You can also pick up a copy directly from the publisher via the Princeton University Press website.

E-book versions are also now available for preorder on Kobo, Google Play, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Folks interested in the audiobook can preorder their copy (narrated by yours truly) through Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Audible, Google Play, Libro.fm and Kobo.

Meanwhile, readers outside the U.S. can snag a copy via Blackwell’s, with free international shipping.

Princeton University Press was very aggressive in keeping the price point down – it’s much cheaper than a typical academic press (which often cost $50- $100 or more), and comparable in price to a new release from an imprint like Basic Books or Penguin.

I strongly encourage everyone to preorder the book as soon as possible. As Yashar Ali explains here, the best way to support an author is not just to buy the book after it comes out — but to pre-order. It makes a huge difference in terms of the impact of the book to have strong “day-one” sales.

And this book is going to be an absolute banger.

There have been many books published to try to understand the period of rapid change in norms and discourse after 2010. This book is not like those books. It’s not an “antiwoke” polemic – it’s a deep dive into how inequalities come about and persist, how they are legitimized, and who benefits from them and how. It’s draws on and synthesizes tons of empirical research from a wide range of fields (I’m a professor of communication and journalism who previously served as an instructor in political science; I have degrees in philosophy and sociology; I was mentored by, and have co-authored scholarly work with, prominent psychologists. All of these influences shine through clearly in the work). It has a hundred year historical arc. I can guarantee: you haven’t read this book before.

Description

Starting in the interwar period (between World Wars I and II) and rapidly accelerating in the 1970s, there were shifts to the global economy that radically increased the influence of the “symbolic industries” – science and technology, education, media, law, consulting, administration, finance, non-profits, NGOs and advocacy organizations, and so forth. People who work in these fields traffic primarily in data, ideas, rhetoric, images instead of physical goods or services. Drawing from Bourdieu, we can refer to these professionals as “symbolic capitalists.”

I’m a symbolic capitalist. If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance you’re a symbolic capitalist too.

One defining trait of symbolic capitalists is our commitment to social justice. We are the Americans most likely to self-identify as feminists, antiracists or allies to LGBTQ people. Politically, we’re overwhelmingly aligned with America’s primary ‘left’ party. Many of our professions are explicitly oriented around altruism, speaking truth to power, or serving as impartial adjudicators, knowledge producers, facilitators and advisors in order to advance the common good.

Given the ways symbolic capitalists like to understand and describe ourselves and our professions, one might expect that as people like “us” have gained more power over society, longstanding social problems would be on the path to resolution and socioeconomic and cultural inequalities would be greatly diminished. In reality, the opposite has happened.

In tandem with the transitions favoring the symbolic industries, we’ve seen increased polarization and social conflict. Public trust in institutions has been consistently plummeting. Many systems and institutions are growing increasingly dysfunctional and ineffective. Inequalities in the U.S. have grown increasingly pronounced as symbolic capitalists have risen in affluence and influence. Symbolic capitalists are, themselves, among the primary beneficiaries of these inequalities – and social justice discourse is increasingly mobilized to justify them.

The ‘losers’ in the symbolic economy are portrayed as deserving their lot because they think, feel or say the ‘wrong’ things about race, gender and sexuality. Elites’ bids for more power and status, meanwhile, are increasingly bound up with their egalitarian bona fides.

Understanding this state of affairs requires a deep and unflinching look into the history and political economy of symbolic capitalists. Although our professions have, from the outset, defined themselves as altruistic in nature — oriented towards higher principles or the greater good – the truth is, we have never been woke.

Chapter Overview

Introduction

Books are products of particular times and places. They are often designed as interventions into ongoing conversations, often oriented towards some set of goals. They’re typically motivated by observations or experiences that convince authors they should or must be written. The introduction to We Have Never Been Woke details how the book came about and spells out some of its foundational axioms and goals.

Sections:

Inspiration | Orwell’s Demon | Overview | Minority Report | (Analytic) Inequality | Coda: We Have Never Been Woke

Those interested can read the full introduction on the Princeton University website here.

Chapter 1: On Wokeness

What is “wokeness”? Who is “woke”? What are the struggles around “wokeness” actually about? Chapter 1 argues “wokeness” is best understood as the dominant ideology of a new constellation of elites: symbolic capitalists. Although sincerely committed to egalitarianism in principle, symbolic capitalists also tend to be ambitious social climbers and expect and desire to be treated as social elites. These goals are in tension. This tension has defined the symbolic professions from the outset.

Sections:

Symbolic Capital(ists) | ‘Woke’ | Hegemony and False Consensus | The Symbolic Mainstream | Symbolic Conservatives | The Anti-Woke | Wokeness, Faith, Insecurity | The Banality of ‘Wokeness’ | Ideals and Interests | Coda: Birth of the Symbolic Professions

Chapter 2: The Great Awokening(s)

Since 2010, there has been a rapid shift in the rhetoric, beliefs, institutional norms, and political behaviors of symbolic capitalists. These shifts are actually a ‘case’ of something. In fact, looking at some of the same indicators we can use to substantiate and track the contemporary “Awokening” we can see that there were three similar periods of rapid cultural and moral change over the course of the 20th century. By comparing and contrasting the current ‘Great Awokening’ with previous episodes we can gain important insights into questions like, “Under what circumstances do these Awokenings come about? When and why do they end? What, if anything, do they tend to change? If and how does one Awokening inform the next?” This is the project of Chapter 2.

Sections:

A Major Shift | Point of Origin | E Pluribus Unum | Alternative Facts | Not the First, Not the Last | The First Awokening | The Second Awokening | The Third Awokening | The Fourth Awokening | The Next Awokening | Elite Overproduction | Diverted Movements | The More Things Change | Social Justice Sinecures | Theories of Failure | Culture Wars | Coda: White Liberals

Chapter 3: Symbolic Domination

Symbolic capitalists are elites. However, we often decline to see ourselves this way. We typically focus on millionaires and billionaires when discussing social problems. However, symbolic capitalists exert immense influence over society too. And we profit greatly from, and actively exploit and perpetuate, many social problems we conspicuously condemn. Moreover, the millionaires and billionaires in society are increasingly drawn from “us” and underwrite and subsidize our institutions and outputs. It’s largely through “us” that they make stuff happen in the world. Multinational corporations are likewise largely administrated by “us,” and their policies are designed and implemented by “us.” Political campaigns and government administrations are likewise designed and run largely by “us.” In short, the line we try to draw between “us” and “elites” is less substantial than we’d like to acknowledge. Chapter 3 illustrates this point at length.

Sections:

Winners Take All | Empire of Signs | Inequalities in Context | Disposable Labor(ers) | Symbolic Hubs | Sex and Symbolic Capital | Coda: Rich, White and Blue

Chapter 4: Post-Materialist Politics

Symbolic capitalists’ unique socioeconomic position and cognitive profiles predispose us towards idiosyncratic political preferences and behaviors. As symbolic capitalists have grown increasingly influential, and increasingly consolidated into the Democratic Party, we profoundly reshaped that party and U.S. political landscape more broadly – often in ways we might not be proud of. Chapter 4 helps us understand the nature and origins of symbolic capitalists’ idiosyncratic approach to politics, including and especially our intense focus on hearts and minds, symbols and rhetoric, at the expense of the “bread and butter” struggles that other Americans are most concerned about.

Sections:

Blue Cities Are the Problem | Sophisticated Accumulation | A Tempest in a Teapot | The Curse of Knowledge | Consequences of Consolidation | Disciplined Minds | Coda: ‘Woke’ Capitalism

Chapter 5: Totemic Capital(ism)

Symbolic capitalists have always presented ourselves as advocates for the vulnerable and downtrodden. Today, we often present ourselves as literal embodiments or representatives of historically marginalized and disadvantaged groups – and as, ourselves, being marginalized and disadvantaged (despite the reality that we are, in fact, elites). Chapter 5 explores how and why contemporary elites leverage association with ostensibly stigmatized identities in struggles over resources, status and power.

Sections:

A New Moral Culture | Victimhood as Status | Stigmata | Different Boats | Totemic Capital | (Mis)Appropriating Totems | The Totemic Mystique | The Wrong Bodies | Backwards in Heels | Differently (En)Abled | The Rich Get Richer | He Who Lives by the Sword… | Coda: Accounting for Taste

Chapter 6: Mystification of Social Processes

‘Wokeness’ often obscures unpalatable truths from symbolic capitalists and other stakeholders. Chapter 6 will do a dive into the cognitive and behavioral science literatures to illustrate how sincere commitments to social justice causes allow symbolic capitalists to exploit, perpetuate and exacerbate inequalities while convincing themselves that ‘others’ are the problem and sincerely believing themselves to be egalitarians and “allies” for the marginalized and disadvantaged in society.

Sections:

Tall Tales | Noblesse Oblige | Class/ Cancelled | Invalidating Inconvenient Perspectives | Critique or Alibi? | Doing Bad, Feeling Good | Coda: Babies and Bathwater

Conclusion

There is more to say on social justice discourse, inequality and the rise of symbolic capitalists than can be conveyed in a single book. Moreover, even as certain questions were answered in the text, new questions were raised. The conclusion sketches out what was learned and what remains to be explored.

Sections:

Taking Stock | Sans Frontieres | Tentative Answers, New Questions | Beyond Belief

Advance Praise

“In this important and timely book, Musa al-Gharbi describes the rise of the ‘symbolic capitalists,’ and how an ideology has evolved to cement their power and restrict entry from outsiders. We Have Never Been Woke effectively addresses a wide readership on this contentious issue.”

Tyler Cowen, Economics, George Mason University

“Uncomfortable and eye-opening, We Have Never Been Woke puts in sharp relief the contradictions of cultural elites who champion important social causes while they simultaneously, and perhaps obliviously, perpetuate inequities and inequalities in their own daily lives.”

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, author of The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class

“In this smart, discerning, and indispensable book, Musa al-Gharbi lays much needed and essential groundwork for understanding what the phrase ‘woke’ really means and where it comes from. Mistakenly pegged as the clarion call of so-called social justice warriors, woke represents a corruption of the liberal tradition at the hands of the new symbolic capitalists who sit atop today’s economy. An essential read for all those seeking to overcome self-serving narratives and address social disadvantage more effectively.”

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

“Our interminable culture war is marked by bluster and bomb-throwing that produces more heat than light. Musa al-Gharbi rises above the fray with a book that is certain to become the definitive account of elite social justice discourse and its myriad hypocrisies. We Have Never Been Woke is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the social and economic forces that sustain both performative progressivism and its critics.”

Tyler Austin Harper, Environmental Studies, Bates College

"I urge you to preorder al-Gharbi's We Have Never Been Woke. It comes out this fall, an announces him as a rising intellectual star."

David Brooks, author of Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, writing in the New York Times.

Reviews

“Verdict: A sharp, well-researched critique aimed at politically-active readers who want to better understand why people believe what they believe.”

Tina Panik, Library Journal

“Sprawling, ambitious, and perceptive… Like al-Gharbi himself, We Have Never Been Woke is tough to pin down politically: It raises too many provocative questions and gores too many oxen across the political spectrum to let anybody feel very complacent. It’s a highly erudite book, idiosyncratically straddling the line between an academic publication and a broader interest page-turner, that, at its sharpest, transcends all of the citations and footnotes to achieve a pungent first-person sociological and psychological clarity reminiscent of distinctive thinkers in the realm of Eric Hoffer… Few conversations are as frequently unproductive as the fights we have over that-which-is-called-wokeness, but as important to rethink and get right. And if al-Gharbi hasn’t gotten it perfectly right in this book, nobody has ever gotten it less wrong.”

Jesse Adams, The Washington Examiner

“Al-Gharbi freely confesses that he himself is a symbolic capitalist… So, too, are anti-woke culture critics—including me and many of my fellow Quillette contributors—who ‘attempt to show everyone how elite they are, how ‘above it all’ they are, by very aggressively and publicly defying the prevailing discursive and normative trends among their peers.’ (If you can get through this entire book without periodically blushing and saying, ‘Yeah, that’s me,’ then I’d suggest you’re not being honest with yourself.) Far from offering a culture-war call to arms, Al-Gharbi strikes a moderate, almost weary tone. He argues that there’s nothing particularly special or alarming about this moment.”

Jonathan Kay, Quillette

Musa al-Gharbi’s provocative book undercuts the left elite by pointing out the hypocrisy of its well intentioned rhetoric. The “woke” live comfortable lives because of the very inequities they condemn.

Ed Meek, The Arts Fuse

Bookings, Galleys, Group Orders

If you are interested in buying several copies of the book (for a group or event, for instance), hit me up and I can put you in touch with the Princeton University Press team about potential discounts.

If you’re a

Journalist interested in writing about me or the book or doing an interview,
An editor interested in writing and excerpt or soliciting an original essay,
An academic interested in reviewing the book for a major disciplinary journal, or
Someone interested in having me out to give a talk about the book or its themes

Reach out ASAP. More specifically:

To invite me for a talk, the best bet is to reach out to my booking agent, Akhil Jonnalagadda (Akhil_Jonnalagadda@press.princeton.edu). Already-confirmed tour dates available here.
For commissioned essays, interviews, excerpts, etc., please reach out to the book’s publicist, Megan Posco (megan@poscopublicity.com).
To get a conversation going about a home for my next book project, which will turn the analytic lens away from the “winners” in the symbolic economy towards those who perceive themselves to be the “losers” (in active development, details coming out soon), reach out to my literary agent Andrew Stuart (Andrew@stuartagency.com).

With respect to media and podcast interviews, public talks, or commissioned essays, I'll try to do as many as possible, but my dance card is filling up quickly. So you'll want to slot me in while I still have decent bandwidth.

Likewise, with respect to the book, advance copies are limited, and decisions about how to allocate them are made in conjunction with the publisher (based on factors like prestige, prominence and audience size of the journal/ outlet/ author in question, etc.). The best chance to be able to review the book ahead of publication for a media outlet or journal is to get your request in relatively early.

For those who are not journalists or academics doing a review of the book (or those who are journalists or academics, but are unlikely to be able to review the book in a genuinely influential and/or wide-circulation outlet), but who are really eager to get their hands on it -- a sincere thanks for your interest! However, the publisher is unlikely to approve any galley requests that are not clearly oriented towards enhancing the impact and sales of the book in a meaningful way. So the best bet to get the book as early as possible would be to simply pre-order it now.

But Wait, There’s More…

In addition to reserving a copy of the book for yourself, if you’re not already signed up, consider subscribing to Symbolic Capital(ism). It’ll get you locked in for updates about this book and its planned follow up, and will also get you access to essays I’ll be producing expanding on some of the core themes and ideas from the book (largely talking about stuff that is not discussed in the text itself) — such as this essay, applying the analytical frameworks of We Have Never Been Woke to the encampment protests (which occurred after the book was written), or recent essays diving into the profound cultural and existential implications of the shift to the symbolic economy, or exploring ways other scholars have tried to understand symbolic capitalists. This is all stuff I couldn’t cover in the book, but that people interested in the book would likely find really compelling and generative as well.

That’ll be the general approach of this Substack downstream: we won’t really cover much from the book itself here — you’ll have to pick up your own copy for those provocative data and arguments. But before and after the book launches, this is the best place to go for content exploring adjacent issues, themes and topics. You can sign up below:

You can also try to catch me on the road. I’ll be touring in support of the book, perhaps headed to a town near you!

Finally, to whet your appetite in anticipation of the launch, a selection of media hits, interviews, essays and talks that are currently available follows below. Peruse to your heart’s content!

External Essays