Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization Without Political Consequences -- Anton Jäger, Paperback

After a decade of surging political activism, why have mass movements managed to change so little? A brilliant cultural analysis by the influential columnist.

"Hyperpolitics" describes the paradoxical state of affairs today, in which politicization seemingly has few political consequences. Anton Jager's incisive appraisal sets the benchmark by which future histories of the present will be judged. Politics is back.

After the posthistorical lull of the 1990s and the false dawn of millennial technocracy, contestation has returned centre-stage. Protests, riots and jacqueries bring citizens off their couches and into the streets, even as social media overruns the embankments of the public and personal. Such actions politicize an ever greater share of experience while lowering the costs of engagement. Yet this spate of activism has seldom translated into more durable forms of collective action--parties, trade unions and civic associations continue to atrophy, even as advertisements of commitment proliferate.

Author: Anton Jäger
Publisher: Verso
Published: 02/10/2026
Pages: 128
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
ISBN: 9781836742074

About the Author
Anton Jäger holds a PhD in history from Cambridge and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leuven. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, and New Left Review.