Muskism - A Guide for the Perplexed

A map of the worlds that made Elon Musk, and a guide to the ideas behind his attempt to redesign reality. After Henry Ford published his autobiography in 1922, his name became an "-ism." Out of one man emerged an ideology that defined capitalism in the twentieth century. Now, a century later, Elon Musk has similarly captured the popular imagination. He has been hailed as a messianic genius and dismissed as a reckless buffoon. But, as Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue, Musk is much more: an avatar for an entire worldview. Muskism is an operating system for the twenty-first century. It envisions governments run like startups, where software programmed by a small clique implements policy automatically and at scale. In both politics and industry, human labor evaporates, and power flows to those who own the machines. Muskism presents itself as a modernizing, forward-looking project, but it wants to harden differences of an enduring and old-fashioned sort. It is futurism in the service of hierarchy. To understand the world that Musk aims to build, Slobodian and Tarnoff believe, we must first understand the worlds that built Musk. The passages of Musk''s life--from South Africa to Silicon Valley, SpaceX to DOGE; his obsession with science fiction, anime and demographics; his addiction to social media and gaming--help us see the origins and dynamics of Muskism. But Muskism isn''t just about Musk. It''s a blueprint for a new global order. As governments and corporations adopt Musk''s playbook, coming to terms with Muskism will become essential for deciphering the forces shaping our future.

About the author

Quinn Slobodian is professor of international history at Boston University, and the author or editor of seven books translated into ten languages including, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ and the Capitalism of the Far Right, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy, and Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. In 2024, the Prospect Magazine (UK) named him one of the World’s 25 Top Thinkers.
Ben Tarnoff is a writer and technologist based in Massachusetts and is the author of Internet for the People and the co-author of Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do—And How They Do It. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, and has also written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New Republic, among other publications.

Summary

A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age
Everyone’s got an Elon take. He’s a messiah. He’s a menace. He’s a genius. He’s a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one theme: they treat him as an individual.
Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isn’t a glitch in the system—he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through technology: plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you.
If Fordism defined the capitalism of the twentieth century, Muskism may define the twenty-first. Fordism helped build the welfare state. Musk undoes it. He thrives on dependence while preaching freedom. His rockets run on subsidies; his satellites run the battlefield; his social networks train the AI that trains us.
Muskism sells itself as the future, but entrenches age-old hierarchies. It offers autonomy for some and exclusion for others. It’s libertarian but state-fed, pro-natalist but anti-immigrant, futurist but reactionary.
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff cut through the hype and the hate to reveal what Musk really represents: a new political economy, where to be “free” means to serve a Technoking. Muskism isn’t about the man. It’s about the machine that made him—and the world he’s making next.

Report

"A whirlwind tour through the plans and inspirations of the world's most self-important man." -Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto
"This book is brilliant in all the ways Elon Musk is not: unflinchingly honest, actually humorous, and deeply humane. Unlike their subject, these authors punch up, not down, and they do so with erudition and precision. A wholly original and insightful analysis that deserves to be read by the billions of people impacted by Musk's pathological quest for power and wealth." - Astra Taylor, author of The Age of Insecurity
"Muskism cuts straight to the core of the man and the moment, explaining how a mercurial, conspiracy-prone, vicious bastard can inspire loyalty and billions in other peoples' money, and the nightmare world he wants to build with those billions." - Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification and editor of Pluralistic
"The bad news is that Elon Musk is the most powerful and influential man alive-the world-soul astride a Cybertruck. The good news is that Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian have written this sharp, stimulating guide not just to the man and his ideology but to the paradigm and 'operating system' he represents. Forget the hagiographies and conspiracy theories, this is the only book you need to understand Musk and the world he's seeking to usher in." -Max Read, editor of Read Max
"Through the life and work of Elon Musk, this impeccably researched and splendidly written book introduces us to something more than the man: Muskism, the idea of using government to pay for one's entrepreneurship harnessed to ensuring the rise and rule of the new engineering technocracy. It is a world full of promise and fear. Technical prowess no longer seems to work for equality, but for its opposite. Startups are on their way to becoming satraps." -Branko Milanovic, author of The Great Global Transformation

Product details

• Authors: Quinn Slobodian, Ben Tarnoff
• Publisher: Harper Collins Usa
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 07.01.2026
• EAN: 9780063484320
• ISBN: 978-0-06-348432-0
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / General, Capitalism, SCIENCE / General, Biography: science, technology and medicine, Right-of-centre democratic ideologies, HISTORY: Social History, PHILOSOPHY: Political, Literature / Memoir & Biography, Management / General