The Politics of Losing

The Politics of Losing

Trump, the Klan, and the Mainstreaming of Resentment

  • Autor: McVeigh, Rory; Estep, Kevin
  • Editor: Columbia University Press
  • ISBN: 9780231190060
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780231548700
  • Lloc de publicació:  New York , United States
  • Any de publicació digital: 2019
  • Mes: Febrer
  • Idioma: Anglés
The Ku Klux Klan has peaked three times in American history: after the Civil War, around the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and in the 1920s, when the Klan spread farthest and fastest. Recruiting millions of members even in non-Southern states, the Klan’s nationalist insurgency burst into mainstream politics. Almost one hundred years later, the pent-up anger of white Americans left behind by a changing economy has once again directed itself at immigrants and cultural outsiders and roiled a presidential election.

In The Politics of Losing, Rory McVeigh and Kevin Estep trace the parallels between the 1920s Klan and today’s right-wing backlash, identifying the conditions that allow white nationalism to emerge from the shadows. White middle-class Protestant Americans in the 1920s found themselves stranded by an economy that was increasingly industrialized and fueled by immigrant labor. Mirroring the Klan’s earlier tactics, Donald Trump delivered a message that mingled economic populism with deep cultural resentments. McVeigh and Estep present a sociological analysis of the Klan’s outbreaks that goes beyond Trump the individual to show how his rise to power was made possible by a convergence of circumstances. White Americans’ experience of declining privilege and perceptions of lost power can trigger a political backlash that overtly asserts white-nationalist goals. The Politics of Losing offers a rigorous and lucid explanation for a recurrent phenomenon in American history, with important lessons about the origins of our alarming political climate.
  • Table of Contents
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Ku Klux Klan in American History
  • 3. Power and Political Alignments
  • 4. Economics and White Nationalism
  • 5. Where Trump Found His Base
  • 6. Politics and White Nationalism
  • 7. Status and White Nationalism
  • 8. White Nationalism Versus the Press
  • 9. The Future of White Nationalism and American Politics
  • Conclusion: Making America White Again
  • Appendix: Methods of Statistical Analysis
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index

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