The First Populist

The First Populist
Author: David S. Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2022-05-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1982191112

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A timely, “solidly researched [and] gracefully written” (The Wall Street Journal) biography of President Andrew Jackson that offers a fresh reexamination of this charismatic figure in the context of American populism—connecting the complex man and the politician to a longer history of division, dissent, and partisanship that has come to define our current times. Andrew Jackson rose from rural poverty in the Carolinas to become the dominant figure in American politics between Jefferson and Lincoln. His reputation, however, defies easy description. Some regard him as the symbol of a powerful democratic movement that saw early 19th-century voting rights expanded for propertyless white men. Others stress Jackson’s prominent role in removing Native American peoples from their ancestral lands, which then became the center of a thriving southern cotton kingdom worked by more than a million enslaved people. A combative, self-defined champion of “farmers, mechanics, and laborers,” Jackson railed against East Coast elites and Virginia aristocracy, fostering a brand of democracy that struck a chord with the common man and helped catapult him into the presidency. “The General,” as he was known, was the first president to be born of humble origins, first orphan, and thus far the only former prisoner of war to occupy the office. Drawing on a wide range of sources, The First Populist takes a fresh look at Jackson’s public career, including the pivotal Battle of New Orleans (1815) and the bitterly fought Bank War; it reveals his marriage to an already married woman and a deadly duel with a Nashville dandy, and analyzes his magnetic hold on the public imagination of the country in the decades between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. “By assessing the frequent comparisons between Jackson and Donald Trump…the hope is that a fresh understanding of the divisive times of ‘the country’s original anti-establishment president’ might shed light on our own” (The Christian Science Monitor).

First They Took Rome

First They Took Rome
Author: David Broder
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1786637618

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Italy’s political disaster under a microscope There is little that hasn’t gone wrong for Italy in the last three decades. Economic growth has flatlined, infrastructure has crumbled, and out-of-work youth find their futures stuck on hold. These woes have been reflected in the country’s politics, from Silvio Berlusconi’s scandals to the rise of the far right. Many commentators blame Italy’s malaise on cultural ills—pointing to the corruption of public life or a supposedly endemic backwardness. In this reading, Italy has failed to converge with the neoliberal reforms mounted by other European countries, leaving it to trail behind the rest of the world. First They Took Rome offers a different perspective: Italy isn’t failing to keep up with its international peers but farther along the same path of decline they are following. In the 1980s, Italy boasted the West’s strongest Communist Party; today, social solidarity is collapsing, working people feel ever more atomized, and democratic institutions grow increasingly hollow. Studying the rise of forces like Matteo Salvini’s Lega, this book shows how the populist right drew on a deep well of social despair, ignored by the liberal centre. Italy’s recent history is a warning from the future—the story of a collapse of public life that risks spreading across the West.

The Populist Revolt

The Populist Revolt
Author: John Donald Hicks
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 490
Release: 1931
Genre: History
ISBN: 0816660085

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Populist Revolt was first published in 1931. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. When The Populist Revolt was originally published, the New York Times critic called it "far and away the best account of populism that we have—and one not likely to be replaced." That prophecy proved right; the book has not been replaced, and historians and critics agree that it is the definitive work on its subject. Now it is made available once more, after being out of print for some time. This is a history of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party, under whose banners a great crusade for farm relief was waged in the 1880's and 1890's. As important as the chronicle of the political movement itself is the detailed picture which Professor Hicks gives of the conditions which set the stage for this agrarian revolt. He describes the inequities and malpractices which beset both the new settlers of the West and the poverty-ridden whites and Negroes of the South following the Civil War. The story of Populism itself is a lively one, people with such picturesque leaders as "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman of South Carolina, "Sockless" Jerry Simpson and Mary Elizabeth Lease—the "Patrick Henry in petticoats"—of Kansas, "Bloody Bridles" Waite of Colorado, Thomas E. Watson of Georgia, Dr. C. W. Macune of Texas, James B. Weaver of Iowa, and Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota. In these pages, Professor Hicks has, as Frederic L. Paxson pointed out, "presented the case for Populism better than the Populists themselves could do it." Henry Steele Commanger calls the book a "thorough, scholarly, sympathetic and spirited history of the entire Populist movement."

In Defense of Andrew Jackson

In Defense of Andrew Jackson
Author: Bradley J. Birzer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2018-09-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1621578437

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"He was a man of the frontier, self-made but appreciative of those who gave him their loyalty and support. He was, pure and simple, and American..." He was controversial in his time—and even more controversial in our own. Indian fighter, ardent patriot, hero of the War of 1812, the very embodiment of America’s democratic and frontier spirit, Andrew Jackson was an iconic figure. Today, Jackson is criticized and reviled – condemned as a slave-owner, repudiated as the president who dispatched the Indians down the “Trail of Tears,” dropped with embarrassment by the Democratic Party, and demanded by many to be removed from the twenty-dollar bill. Who is the real Andrew Jackson? The beloved Old Hickory whom Americans once revered? Or the villain who has become a prime target of the Social Justice Warriors? Using letters, diaries, newspaper columns, and notes, historian Bradley Birzer provides a fresh and enlightening perspective on Jackson —unvarnished, true to history, revealing why President Donald Trump sees Andrew Jackson as a political role model, and illustrating the strong parallels between the anxieties of Jacksonian America and the anxieties of the "Hillbilly Elegy" voting bloc of today. In this brilliant new book, Bradley Birzer makes the case that Jackson was… The epitome of the American frontier republican. Passionately devoted to individual liberty. A staunch proponent of Christian morality. Not only dedicated but also vital to the preservation of the Union. A significant and influential role model to President Donald J. Trump. In Defense of Andrew Jackson sets the record straight on our seventh president, revealing a radically new but historically accurate perspective on Jackson. “I’m not an Andrew Jackson fan, but I’m definitely a Bradley Birzer fan. His case for Old Hickory is as strong as any I’ve seen and deserves to be reckoned with.”- THOMAS E. WOODS JR., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. “Most discussion of Andrew Jackson falls into predictable ruts, defaulting automatically to clichés that reflect more on our own time than his. Whether America is entering another ‘Jacksonian’ period depends upon understanding the first one more clearly, and we have Bradley Birzer to thank for taking up a spirited defense of this complicated man and his legacy.” - STEVEN F. HAYWARD, author of The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution 1980-1989. “Liberal revisionists have pounded Andrew Jackson down to the point where Democrats are ashamed to admit he founded their party. In Defense of Andrew Jackson sets the record straight on America’s first populist president.” - JAMES S. ROBBINS, author of Erasing America: Losing Our Future by Destroying Our Past. “As a man and a military hero, Andrew Jackson is as American as they come. But in this timely biography, Bradley Birzer has managed to peel back layers of cliché and reveal our seventh president as a more complex human being than current textbooks allow.” - GLEAVES WHITNEY, director of Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

Fixing the System

Fixing the System
Author: Adrian Kuzminski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2008-06-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1628924012

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In the current climate of dissatisfaction with "democratic" Western political and economic systems, this is a timely book that demonstrates a true political Third Way. Populism is distinguished from other political movements by its insistence on two things conspicuously missing from modern systems of political economy: genuine democracy based on local citizen assemblies, and the widespread distribution among the population of privately-owned economic capital. Fixing the System offers a comprehensive historical account of populism, revealing the consistent and distinct history of populism since ancient times. Adrian Kuzminski demonstrates that populism is a tradition of practice as well as thought, ranging from ancient city states to the frontier communities of colonial america-all places where widely distributed private property and democratic decision-making combined to foster material prosperity and cultural innovation. In calling for a wide distribution of both property and democracy, populism opposes the political and economic system found today in the united states and other Western countries, where property remains highly concentrated in private hands and where representatives chosen in impersonal mass elections frustrate democracy by serving private monied interests rather than the public good. As Kuzminski demonstrates, as one of very few systematic alternatives to today's political and economic system, populism, offers a pragmatic program for fundamental social change that deserves wide and serious consideration. Populism is a genuine "third way" in politics, a middle path between the extremes of corporate anarchy and collective authoritarianism. As America takes stock of her current situation and looks toward the future in the 2008 election year, Fixing the System offers a trenchant and timely study of this deep-rooted movement.

Twenty-First Century Populism

Twenty-First Century Populism
Author: D. Albertazzi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007-12-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230592104

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Twenty-First Century Populism analyses the phenomenon of sustained populist growth in Western Europe by looking at the conditions facilitating populism in specific national contexts and then examining populist fortunes in those countries. The chapters are written by country experts and political scientists from across the continent.

Populist Saints

Populist Saints
Author: T. Richard Snyder
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006-10-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802828842

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'Populist Saints' tells the story of B.T. and Ellen Roberts' lives, recounting their critique of powerful elites and illuminating the 'crisis of Methodism' that gave rise to the Free Methodist Church.

The Last American Aristocrat

The Last American Aristocrat
Author: David S. Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2020-11-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1982128259

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A “marvelous…compelling” (The New York Times Book Review) biography of literary icon Henry Adams—one of America’s most prominent writers and intellectuals, who witnessed and contributed to the United States’ dramatic transition from a colonial society to a modern nation. Henry Adams is perhaps the most eclectic, accomplished, and important American writer of his time. His autobiography and modern classic The Education of Henry Adams was widely considered one of the best English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century. The last member of his distinguished family—after great-grandfather John Adams, and grandfather John Quincy Adams—to gain national attention, he is remembered today as an historian, a political commentator, and a memoirist. Now, historian David Brown sheds light on the brilliant yet under-celebrated life of this major American intellectual. Adams not only lived through the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution but he met Abraham Lincoln, bowed before Queen Victoria, and counted Secretary of State John Hay, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and President Theodore Roosevelt as friends and neighbors. His observations of these powerful men and their policies in his private letters provide a penetrating assessment of Gilded Age America on the cusp of the modern era. “Thoroughly researched and gracefully written” (The Wall Street Journal), The Last American Aristocrat details Adams’s relationships with his wife (Marian “Clover” Hooper) and, following her suicide, Elizabeth Cameron, the young wife of a senator and part of the famous Sherman clan from Ohio. Henry Adams’s letters—thousands of them—demonstrate his struggles with depression, familial expectations, and reconciling with his unwanted widower’s existence. Offering a fresh window on nineteenth century US history, as well as a more “modern” and “human” Henry Adams than ever before, The Last American Aristocrat is a “standout portrait of the man and his era” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

From Fascism to Populism in History

From Fascism to Populism in History
Author: Federico Finchelstein
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520309359

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What is fascism and what is populism? What are their connections in history and theory, and how should we address their significant differences? What does it mean when pundits call Donald Trump a fascist, or label as populist politicians who span left and right such as Hugo Chávez, Juan Perón, Rodrigo Duterte, and Marine Le Pen? Federico Finchelstein, one of the leading scholars of fascist and populist ideologies, synthesizes their history in order to answer these questions and offer a thoughtful perspective on how we might apply the concepts today. While they belong to the same history and are often conflated, fascism and populism actually represent distinct political trajectories. Drawing on an expansive record of transnational fascism and postwar populist movements, Finchelstein gives us insightful new ways to think about the state of democracy and political culture on a global scale. This new edition includes an updated preface that brings the book up to date, midway through the Trump presidency and the election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The Populist Century

The Populist Century
Author: Pierre Rosanvallon
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2021-11-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1509546308

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Populism is an expression of anger; its appeal stems from being presented as the solution to disorder in our times. The vision of democracy, society, and the economy it offers is coherent and attractive. At a time when the words and slogans of the left have lost much of their power to inspire, Pierre Rosanvallon takes populism for what it is: the rising ideology of the twenty-first century. In The Populist Century he develops a rigorous theoretical account of populism, distinguishing five key features that make up populist political culture; he retraces its history in modern democracies from the mid-nineteenth century to the present; and he offers a well-reasoned critique of populism, outlining a robust democratic alternative. This wide-ranging and insightful account of the theory and practice of populism will be of great interest to students and scholars in politics and the social sciences and to anyone concerned with the key political questions of our time.