"Cold Land" is a collaborative work by more than a dozen authors. They call for resistance against the increasingly brutal dehumanization policies of neoliberalism: with analyses and arguments from both scientific and personal perspectives, infused with empathy and commitment. Stéphane Hessel demands breaking the power of the wealthy in the interest of social human rights. Poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge illustrates how the welfare state is being ruined in Germany. Sociologist Volker Eick describes parallel developments in the USA. Catholic social ethicist Hengsbach speaks of a civil war against the impoverished. Rudolph Bauer and Holdger Platta warn of a new totalitarianism in Germany and Europe. The discussion revolves around capitalist globalization and Hartz IV: about a political barbarism that increasingly plunges more marginalized individuals into despair.