Quinn Slobodian’s ‘Hayek’s Bastards’ Named NBCC Finalist
Congratulations to Professor Quinn Slobodian, whose most recent book, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards under their Criticism category. The recognition highlights the book’s powerful intervention in debates about capitalism, democracy, and the contemporary far right.
In Hayek’s Bastards, Slobodian challenges the common portrayal of Trump-era populism as a backlash against capitalism. Instead, he shows how many of its leading figures are proponents of a new capitalist project—one that fuses free-market ideology with appeals to “nature,” drawing on ideas from psychology, biology, and economics to justify inequality and weaken the welfare state. Tracing these arguments from the 1990s to the present, the book illuminates how themes such as race, IQ, the gold standard, and cryptocurrency have been mobilized to restrict democracy in the name of saving capitalism.
Published by Zone Books, Hayek’s Bastards has been received to wide acclaim. Its selection as an NBCC finalist underscores its significance as a major work of intellectual history with urgent relevance to today’s global political landscape. Slobodian’s forthcoming book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, co-authored with Ben Tarnoff, is expected for release in April 2026.
Click here to learn more about the announcement.
To learn more about Prof. Quinn Slobodian’s work and achievements, visit his faculty profile.