Ryan poll is a professor at Northeastern Illinois University. He serves as an English professor in the institution, and his expertise is mainly in literature, popular culture, and critical theory. Ryan Poll is also the current program advisor for English in the Master of Arts program. Dr. Poll has research interests mainly in the cultures and narratives of globalization. Among those include cultural ecologies and geographies. Furthermore, he does research on working-class narratives, energy cultures, poetic forms and media studies. In his education, Dr. Poll is an accomplished scholar as he has a Ph.D. in English in particular emphasis on critical theory. This paper provides a critical review of Dr. Poll’s work specifically looking his ideas in his book entitled “Main Street and Empire”. Further, the paper considers more publications by Dr. Poll in the quest to provide a comprehensive review of the author’s contributions.
There are some, in fact, several publications in which Dr. Poll is well-renowned. However, the most publicized of his writings is the "Main Street and Empire: The Fictional Small Town in The Age of Globalization.” It got published in 2012. Analysis of the, “Main Street Empire” has to go hand-in-hand with the author’s other work-piece entitled “The rising tide of Neoliberalism” as the two addresses several common issues and directed to almost a similar course of interest.
“Main Street and Empire" mainly talks about a small town that became a national icon in America. The ideology of the town widely circulates in culture, literature and politics. It resonates with a genuine American community and space. There are astonishingly few studies that critique the small town’s prominence to the identity and imagination of the United States of America. In this book, Poll addresses this requirement. He argues that the small town, as portrayed by the symbolism of “Main Street,” is not a remnant of the past. But rather, it is a figurative display upon which America’s daily stories and occurrences get projected on both a countrywide and global scale. The town portrays the past while the city is a symbol of modernity (Lauck, 300).
The writer’s work is unique in that it argues about the small town trope as being complicated ideological in form. The place is pivotal to the development of American imperialism and global capitalism. Main Street has for a long time signified national values. The reason is that even as the U.S's power grew; the nation declined to view itself as an empire. The book also places focus on the town’s philosophical history as an island form. Furthermore, it grounds itself in cultural and literal criticism of Marxism. It also makes an allegation that a “small-town episteme” in the existing town canon is what obscures small-town citizens to an increasingly globalizing capitalist modernity.
One outstanding quality is poll’s will to focus beyond U.S borders and critique the small town in a global context. The chapters in the book evaluate political discourse, literature, real cities, and sociological studies. They also talk about Sinclair Lewis' Main Street (1920), Robert and Helen Lynd’s Middletown (1959), Sarah Palin’s campaign speeches including Celebration, Florida.
Main Street Empire is an elegantly written book. It is of outstanding importance to the understanding of American brilliance within an international geography. The book for sure exerts a big influence on account of American modernity for years to come. It is also one of the most incisive evaluations available about representative discussions on small towns in the U.S. Poll makes a revelation of an imaginary town shaping the globalization age. Furthermore, he uses a broad cultural analysis to investigate the importance of the small town as represented in his literature. He relates it to the cultural imagination of the United States. Indeed, his work is an impressive, multi-dimensional examination of the small town as an icon.
In “The rising tide of neoliberalism,” Poll examines the birth and growth of neoliberalism and its impacts on the global society. In the early 1970s, the media, academia, and western governments perceived the relationship between the state and the market according to the same liberal agreement practiced since the end of the Second World War. During the commonly called "Golden age of capitalism," government, labor and capital reached the troubled agreement that markets led to social disarray when left to their own devices. For this reason, the mitigation of inequality required the involvement of the state. On top of that, the government had the mandate to provide essential services and level out capitalism's growth-recession cycle. The state was to level it out through a mixture of economic and monetary methods.
In the early 1980s, there was a radical shift from that concept. The American and British governments declared that government was the cause of social evil. They were both joined by large factions of the intelligentsia and the media alike. They claimed that free markets were able to undertake almost all activities better than the government. Another claim they made was that all economic crises of the past were as a result of government interference (Susan).
One of the main principles of neoliberalism is the rule of the market. The market rule is whereby the government releases private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government. The state sets them free no matter how much civil damage the action might cause. In his book, Poll explains how governments and intelligentsia convince the populace that neoliberalism is right. They claim that unregulated markets are good for increasing economic growth and that it is the best method to do so. They further claim that it is the best way to achieve development. However, neoliberalism reduced wages by de-unionizing workers and doing away with employees' rights, which got gained after many years of struggling.
This system also cuts public expenditure on social services such as healthcare and education. It reduces the cushioning of the poor from harsh economic times. Another aim of neoliberalism is to sell state-owned businesses, services, and goods to private entrepreneurs. Such organizations and institutions include banks, railroads, principal industries, toll highways, hospitals, and schools. Poll explains how even though the action gets taken in the name of greater efficiency; privatization has majorly caused the concentration of wealth in the hands of few individuals. The situation causes the public to incur more costs to meet basic needs (Ryan, 175)
Ryan poll gives a clear picture on how the states kill the concept of “The public good” and replaces it with “individual responsibility.” Poor people get pressured to find solutions to their problems in social security, healthcare, and education. In the event of their failure to meet these needs, they are branded as lazy. Powerful financial institutions are responsible for the proliferation of neoliberalism around the world. They include the Inter-American development Bank and the World Bank among others.
Indeed, Poll has given a complete and in-depth analysis of very crucial issues in the modern era. His use of symbolism shows his deep understanding of the issues. His works actively enlighten the readers regarding American imperialism and neoliberalism.
Works Cited
George, Susan. "A short history of neoliberalism." Conference on Economic Sovereignty in a Globalising World. Vol. 24. 1999.
Lauck, Jon. "Main Street and Empire: The Fictional Small Town in the Age of Globalization." The Annals of Iowa 73.3 (2014): 300-301.
Poll, Ryan. "The Rising Tide of Neoliberalism: Attica Locke's Black Water Rising and "The New Jim Crow." Class and Culture in Crime Fiction: Essays on Works in English since the 1970s (2014): 175.
