Book review: The great recoil: politics after populism and pandemic by Paolo Gerbaudo

In The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic, Paolo Gerbaudo explores how the crises of populism and the COVID-19 pandemic are giving rise to a ‘great recoil’ from neoliberal globalisation, leading to the return of the state and notions of sovereignty, protection and control. While Gerbaudo outlines how the left can seize this moment to build a society of care committed to overlapping visions of equality and security, Marco Bitschnau remains unconvinced by the book’s interpretation of the long-term impact of populism and the pandemic. The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic. Paolo Gerbaudo. Verso. 2021.