The Cancel Culture Panic

“Edifying, smart, timely, and humane, The Cancel Culture Panic is a brilliant must-read for our age.” —Kate Manne, author of Unshrinking “This book is smart, lucid, witty, and important. It’s attention-grabbing in just the right way. And once people’s attention is grabbed, they will be treated to a genuinely enlightening example of academic thinking at its best.” —Bruce Robbins, author of Criticism and Politics “Tautly argued and richly documented. Daub’s study is indispensable reading for all who seek to defend ethical practices of organized dissent from the mendacious merchants of moral panic.” —Silke-Maria Weineck, author of The Tragedy of Fatherhood “Provides urgent demystification of a panic that does not emerge from weird Twitter mobs, but rather from the majority of society itself. An important, clever and thoroughly analytical book on an overwrought debate.” —Eva Marburg, SWR2 “Comprehensive and knowledgeable.” —Carolin Wiedemann, Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung “A plea for careful consideration and reflection.” —Florian Baranyi, ORF “At a time when the forces of reaction are resurgent around the world, grasping how they learn, borrow, and adapt from each other’s experiences has become an essential task—and we are fortunate to have Daub as our guide.” —Matthew Sitman, co-host of Know Your Enemy “Cancel culture doesn’t really exist, but the moral panic over it does and has real consequences, according to this perceptive account from Daub…. It’s a rigorous, clear-eyed investigation of a divisive modern phenomenon.” —Publishers Weekly starred review “A fleet and often entertaining narrator, Daub has an eye for the most fitting illustrations and manages to keep one or two examples at the center of his arguments while gesturing at many similar ones.“—Samuel P. Catlin, The New Republic “This is a clever analysis that aims to burst the bubble: no reason to panic, things used to be much worse; moreover, cancel culture belongs elsewhere, in the American campus novel.“—Paula Keller, Times Literary Supplement

Adrian Daub is J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, where he serves as the Faculty Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. He is the author of What Tech Calls Thinking (2020) and writes for numerous US and European newspapers and magazines.