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viralmysteries's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Columbia University Press for the free copy at BEA 2019!
This book is a collection of essays from various academic scholars about the causes and symptoms of the Trump administration, as well as the things they are currently doing and it attempts to offer some solutions.
As a collection of essays, some stand out well and others don't. There are a few that overemphasize the role of the "white working class" and pretend that Trump is unique amongst Republicans, while others point out how critical his support from the suburban petit bourgeois was and how he is the culmination of trends that Republicans have been supporting for decades.
There's a really good section that I think represents the best synthesis of the arguments made, in the chapter "Gun Culture":
"The Trump presidency represents at once a change and importantly a continuation of a longer history. It is a history whose pillars are racism, militarization, and working class economic decline.
It was not Trump who waged a war on communism in the Far East, but Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. It was not was not Trump who started the first war in Iraq, but George H.W. Bush. It was not Trumo who began to militarize the border and speak of illegal immigration as a national security threat but rather Bill Clinton. And it was not Trump who helped destroy the stability of working class employment in America but rather a long list of our presidents, not the least of whom was Barack Obama" - pg 180-181.
Overall, a solid analysis if you don't know too much beyond the simple "orange man bad" analysis that the mainstream media gives you. Plays into some Russophobic vibes, but not as much as normally from mainstream publications on Trump. If you are wanting for something deeper than Colbert's nightly homophobic anti-Trump disses, read this. But if you are looking for solutions, this book is lacking beyond a vague "we should help working people". The left has and will continue to produce better solutions than the bland and empty answers found in this, but it's analysis of the current problem is much more substantive than what I was initially expecting (I expected to be thoroughly disappointed by yet another book that says "orange man got the Soviets to rig the election against Mother, and the answer to stop him in 2020 is we need to get more racist").
This book is a collection of essays from various academic scholars about the causes and symptoms of the Trump administration, as well as the things they are currently doing and it attempts to offer some solutions.
As a collection of essays, some stand out well and others don't. There are a few that overemphasize the role of the "white working class" and pretend that Trump is unique amongst Republicans, while others point out how critical his support from the suburban petit bourgeois was and how he is the culmination of trends that Republicans have been supporting for decades.
There's a really good section that I think represents the best synthesis of the arguments made, in the chapter "Gun Culture":
"The Trump presidency represents at once a change and importantly a continuation of a longer history. It is a history whose pillars are racism, militarization, and working class economic decline.
It was not Trump who waged a war on communism in the Far East, but Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. It was not was not Trump who started the first war in Iraq, but George H.W. Bush. It was not Trumo who began to militarize the border and speak of illegal immigration as a national security threat but rather Bill Clinton. And it was not Trump who helped destroy the stability of working class employment in America but rather a long list of our presidents, not the least of whom was Barack Obama" - pg 180-181.
Overall, a solid analysis if you don't know too much beyond the simple "orange man bad" analysis that the mainstream media gives you. Plays into some Russophobic vibes, but not as much as normally from mainstream publications on Trump. If you are wanting for something deeper than Colbert's nightly homophobic anti-Trump disses, read this. But if you are looking for solutions, this book is lacking beyond a vague "we should help working people". The left has and will continue to produce better solutions than the bland and empty answers found in this, but it's analysis of the current problem is much more substantive than what I was initially expecting (I expected to be thoroughly disappointed by yet another book that says "orange man got the Soviets to rig the election against Mother, and the answer to stop him in 2020 is we need to get more racist").
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