Michael Szalay

Michael Szalay studies the political economy of U. S. literature and media culture. His first two books (Hip Figures: A Literary History of the Democratic Party and New Deal Modernism: American Literature and the Invention of the Welfare State) examine the relationship between literature, liberal governance, and economic crisis. He is now finishing a book on HBO. Szalay teaches at UC, Irvine, where he is the Director of the Culture, Law, and Capital Center, and Chair of the English Department.