Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff review – how Elon Musk is reshaping the world

Henry Ford changed the face of industry forever - what kind of economic model do Musk's methods presage?

Genius industrialist or clownish conman, humanity's saviour from a rapidly crumbling planet orrabid social media troll - theverdicts on the world's richest person vary in flavour, but most share something in common: they focus on Musk as an individual. In their study, Quinn Slobodian, a historian at Boston University, and Ben Tarnoff, a tech writer, wish to reframe the conversation. The most important question, they argue, is not who is Musk?" but whatis Musk a symptom of?"

As the title suggests, their answer is Muskism", the coinage a deliberate nod to Fordism, the shorthand for 20th-century capitalism built on the pairing of mass production with mass consumption. If Fordism was the last century's operating system, Slobodian and Tarnoff contend that Muskism is this century's.