From broadsheet newspapers to television shows and Hollywood films, capitalism is increasingly recognised as a system detrimental to human existence. Colin Cremin investigates why, despite this de-robing, capitalism remains a powerful and seductive force.

Using materialist, psychoanalytic and linguistic approaches, Cremin shows how capitalism, anxiety and desire enter into a mutually supporting relationship. He identifies three ways in which we are tied in to capitalism – through a social imperative for enterprise and competition; through enjoyment and consumption; and through the depoliticisation of ethical debate by government and business.

Capitalism's New Clothes is ideal for students of sociology and for anyone worried about the ethics of capitalism or embarrassed by the enjoyments the system has afforded them.

Ciara Cremin lectures in Sociology at the University of Auckland. She is a critical and cultural theorist whose work diagnoses the socio-economic, cultural, and subjective condition of late capitalism, and the author of several books, including Man-Made Woman and The Future is Feminine.

'With a ruthless elegance, Colin Cremin exposes the vacuousness of 'creative' capitalism's pretensions to newness'
Mark Fisher, Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University Of London, and author of Capitalist Realism (2010)

'Slicing through the evasions and double think of contemporary accounts of pleasure, Colin Cremin has produced a must-read text on the sociology of enjoyment. Accessible, penetrating, unmissable'
Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology & Culture, Brunel University, West London

'Engaging, accessible, timely and relevant'
Dr Calum Neill, Lecturer in Critical Psychology, Edinburgh Napier University