Derber read the works of Karl Marx and Herbert Marcuse while in jail for protesting the Vietnam War.
His 1980 book The Pursuit of Attention focuses on ego-centeredness and "conversational narcissism" in everyday life, which he shows are structured by class, gender, and America’s individualistic culture.
[citation needed] His newest book, Bonfire, to be published by Routledge in April, 2025, argues that market-driven competition and greed are breaking down social relations and community, leading to American sociocide, an epidemic of loneliness, and a breeding ground of authoritarianism.
It is an early commentary on what he describes as "corporate regimes" and how they can degrade into fascism, a theme of his later books, "Moving Beyond Fear" and "Glorious Causes," both co-authored with Yale Magrass.
It also examines religious and "born again" ideologies, from German fascism to contemporary evangelical politics in the United States.
[citation needed] The book describes a dystopia in 2020 in which the majority of Americans have been rendered redundant through outsourcing, technological change, and a corporate strategy to abandon the entire US economic infrastructure.
While first drafted before the rise of the Occupy Movement, the analysis is structured around a confrontation on Wall Street between financial elites and "surplus people" protesters.
The book states that a society can be based on what he views as "anti-social values," which lead toward violence, fascism, and sociocide.
In conjunction with that book, Derber has brought together leaders of unions and many social justice movements to examine what those groups should do next to achieve their political goals.
It asserts that Trumpism is the latest expression of a long tradition of American authoritarianism, but also highlights the power of US historical struggles for economic and political democracy.