“Gathering Facts for the End of the World”: Don DeLillo’s Archive of Global Turbulence

Over his career, Don DeLillo grows to inhabit more complex and critical ideas about politics, capitalism, and strategies for opposition than the remote affect of his earlier work might suggest. As part of this project, he developed an advanced analysis of conditions under the global finance regimes gaining strength in the West. The author’s papers at the Harry Ransom Center show that he arrived at this informed position through a program of independent research, his newspaper cuttings from this period vividly demonstrating reflections on the meaning of US global power. After living in Greece for a period of time and returning to New York, his investment in public intellectual debates on the meaning of “terrorism” led to a characteristic but problematic emphasis on free speech as a political issue. More recently, his work has turned to sophisticated theoretical texts for increasingly subtle ideas about globalization and its opponents.