The Politics of Losing: Trump, the Klan, and the Mainstreaming of Resentment
Author: Rory McVeigh File Type: pdf 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 Klans 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 todays 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 Klans earlier tactics, Donald Trump delivered a message that mingled economic populism with deep cultural resentments. McVeigh and Estep present a sociological analysis of the Klans 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. Review Erudite and surprisingly evenhanded. . . . A substantial contribution to understanding an increasingly polarized country. (Publishers Weekly) A welcome addition to the literature on white supremacy. (Kirkus Reviews) Through a clear and dispassionate comparison of the ascendance of the Klan in the 1920s and Trump in 2016, McVeigh and Estep trace the roots of white nationalism in American politics. They show how opportunistic leaders combined race, economics, culture, and religion to mobilize white resentment. The Politics of Losing is the best book to account for the rise of Trumpism that I have read. (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University) In documenting the remarkable parallels between the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and the rise of Trumpian politics today, McVeigh and Estep demonstrate how white nationalism periodically links with economic grievances to shape electoral outcomes. Elegantly written, exquisitely researched, and powerfully argued, The Politics of Losing is essential reading for those who wish to understand the historical origins of our current, racially charged political climateand how to change it. (Jocelyn Viterna, Harvard University) The Politics of Losing not only provides an incredibly rich diagnosis for the current troubles within American democracy but also offers a much-needed and well-reasoned exit. (Christian Davenport, University of Michigan) The tactics of cultural resentment that brought Donald Trump to the White House are not new. As McVeigh and Estep show, eerily similar strategies propelled the explosive rise of the racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan a century earlier. A brilliant, must-read book on the dangerous appeal of white nationalism in American politics. (Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh) McVeigh and Esteps book makes an important contribution to our understanding of white nationalism, its endurance in American politics, and the conditions that brought it back into the mainstream with the election of Donald Trump. Using the 1920s Klan as a reference point, the authors show how declines in the standing of whites (political, economic, and status-based) have often produced sizable populations open to racist appeals, spawning political movements and fracturing enduring electoral coalitions. (Marc Dixon, Dartmouth College) About the Author Rory McVeigh is the Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor in Sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame. He is author of The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan Right-Wing Movements and National Politics (2009) and coeditor of American Sociological Review. Kevin Estep is assistant professor in the Department of Cultural and Social Studies at Creighton University. His research focuses on the consequences of residential sorting on politics and public health.
Author: R. Kevin Hill
File Type: pdf
Continuums Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the best known and most widely read of philosophers, whose work and ideas have proved influential to leading figures in all areas of cultural life. Yet his ideas are also among the most challenging regularly encountered by students. His method and language can seem obscure and oblique, forcing the reader to struggle on his or her own and reflecting Nietzsches desire that his readers form their own answers for themselves. Nietzsche A Guide for the Perplexed is a clear and thorough account of Nietzsches philosophy, his major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the important and complex thought of this key philosopher. The book covers the whole range of Nietzsches work, offering a detailed review of his landmark text, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, together with examination of his early and later work. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Nietzsches thought, the book also provides a cogent and reliable survey of the various, often profoundly different, interpretations of his work and ideas. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of philosophers. **Review Hills discussion of later thinkers and working through of philosophical-logical problems in Nietzsche has obvious merits, but it does necessitate a certain degree of extra explanation. For example, the eight-page discussion of Deleuze includes a two plus page introduction to G. W. F. Hegel. While illuminating, such detours stray away from the focus of introducing Nietzsche and may pose a challenge to the typical reader of books in these kinds of series. Hill does not help matters by using, but not defining, philosophical terminology such as axiological and qualia. He also assumes knowledge of figures such as George Berkley and William Quine. A small amount of explanation on these matters would have been helpful. On balance, however there is no shortage of introductory texts on Nietzsche, so it is fair enough that Hill has made some idiosyncratic choice about the issues he feels are most pressing and which he is best equipped to discuss. In short, this book will be most useful for those who can read it along with Nietzsches own work, have a grounding in basic philosophical issues, and are interested in how later philosophers have used Nietzsche in conjunction with their own unique and influential theories. - Jennifer Benner, H-Net Reviews, June 2008 (Jennifer Benner H-Net Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online) Hills discussion of later thinkers and working through of philosophical-logical problems in Nietzsche has obvious merits, but it does necessitate a certain degree of extra explanation. For example, the eight-page discussion of Deleuze includes a two plus page introduction to G. W. F. Hegel. While illuminating, such detours stray away from the focus of introducing Nietzsche and may pose a challenge to the typical reader of books in these kinds of series. Hill does not help matters by using, but not defining, philosophical terminology such as axiological and qualia. He also assumes knowledge of figures such as George Berkley and William Quine. A small amount of explanation on these matters would have been helpful. On balance, however there is no shortage of introductory texts on Nietzsche, so it is fair enough that Hill has made some idiosyncratic choice about the issues he feels are most pressing and which he is best equipped to discuss. In short, this book will be most useful for those who can read it along with Nietzsches own work, have a grounding in basic philosophical issues, and are interested in how later philosophers have used Nietzsche in conjunction with their own unique and influential theories. - Jennifer Benner, H-Net Reviews, June 2008 (Sanford Lakoff H-Net Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online) About the Author R. Kevin Hill is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Portland State University, USA, and has published a number of books and articles on Nietzsche.
Author: Neil Badmington
File Type: pdf
Roland Barthes the author of such enduringly influential works as Mythologies and Camera Lucida - was one of the most important cultural critics of the post-war era. Since his death in 1980, new writings have continued to be discovered and published. The Afterlives of Roland Barthes is the first book to revisit and reassess Barthes thought in light of these posthumously published writings. Covering work such as Barthes Mourning Diary, the notes for his projected Vita Nova and many writings yet to be translated into English, Neil Badmington reveals a very different Barthes of today than the figure familiar from the writings published in his lifetime. **Review Bartheslike Heidegger and Foucaulthas had a prolific posthumous publishing career. Badmington (Cardiff Univ., UK) undertakes to situate this diverse posthumous work. With remarkable concision, he not only explicates this work but also contextualizes it within Barthess better-known published work. For instance, Badmingtons exploration of the Mourning Diary in essence shows one the genesis of Camera Lucida. It is precisely this careful critical balancingof the exegesis of the new and the anchoring in the well knownthat makes this study so valuable. Accomplished with Badmingtons scholarly care, this critical balance serves ultimately not to provide origin stories to texts that are now part of the theoretical-critical canon, but rather to open up the originary force of Barthess thinking, to remove it from the danger of overfamiliarity. Badmington concludes his study with an intriguing consideration of Barthes and Hitchcocka figure noted for his conspicuous absence in Barthess work. A final, Barthesian note Bloomsbury is to be commended for making a book that feels nice in ones hands. Summing Up Recommended. -CHOICE About the Author Neil Badmington is Professor of English at Cardiff University, UK. His previous books include Hitchcocks Magic (2011) and Alien Chic Posthumanism and the Other Within (2004) and he is the co-editor (with David Tucker) of The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.
Author: Vron Ware
File Type: epub
How have ideas about white women figured in the history of racism? Vron Ware argues that they have been central, and that feminism has, in many ways, developed as a political movement within racist societies. Dissecting the different meanings of femininity and womanhood, Beyond the Pale examines the political connections between black and white women, both within contemporary racism and feminism, as well as in historical examples like the anti-slavery movement and the British campaign against lynching in the United States. Beyond the Pale is a major contribution to anti-racist work, confronting the historical meanings of whiteness as a way of overcoming the moralism that so often infuses anti-racist movements. **
Author: Kevin S. Decker
File Type: pdf
A threat to humanity portending the end of our species lurks in the cold recesses of space. Our only hope is an eleven-year-old boy.Celebrating the long-awaited release of the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Cards novel about highly trained child geniuses fighting a race of invading aliens, this collection of original essays probes key philosophical questions raised in the narrative, including the ethics of child soldiers, politics on the internet, and the morality of war and genocide.Original essays dissect the diverse philosophical questions raised in Cards best-selling sci-fi classic, winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards and which has been translated in 29 languagesPublication coincides with planned release of major motion picture adaptation of Enders Game starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison FordTreats a wealth of core contemporary issues in morality and ethics, including child soldiers, the best kind of education and the use and misuse of global communications for political purposesA stand-out addition to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series
Author: John Blair
File Type: pdf
Playful Song Called Beautiful ranges far into the intersections of faith and scientific thought, places where there is no stranger who is stranger than you, no familiar whos more familiar. In poems that are either formally rhymed and metered or written in syllabically structured three-line stanzas, Blair wanders among universal orders and failures of desire, where the unlikeliness of any of us being who we are, what we are, where we are forces us to considerand reconsiderthe possibilities of belief and meaning. Blairs poems are elegant and earthy, sometimes profane, and sometimes lovingly playful. From the invisible landscape of elementary particles to Johann Wolfgang Von Goethes love of the smell of rotten apples, Blairs poems direct us through a great wide world that is ours and never ours and somewhere among the rolling tercets, the transcendent becomes not only possible, but entirely inevitable. **
Author: Donald McCallum
File Type: pdf
Providing an excellent overview of the latest thinking in Maimonides studies, this book uses a novel philosophical approach to examine whether Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed contains a naturalistic doctrine of salvation after death. The author examines the apparent tensions and contradictions in the Guide and explains them in terms of a modern philosophical interpretation rather than as evidence of some esoteric meaning hidden in the text.About the AuthorDonald McCallum received a Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Manchester and now works as a civil servant. His research interests are in the areas of mediaeval philosophy, especially in the Jewish tradition, Spinoza and Schopenhauer.
Author: David J. Harding
File Type: pdf
Americas high incarceration rates are a well-known facet of contemporary political conversations. Mentioned far less often is what happens to the nearly 700,000 former prisoners who rejoin society each year. On the Outside examines the lives of twenty-two peoplevaried in race and gender but united by their time in the criminal justice systemas they pass out of the prison gates and back into the world. The book takes a clear-eyed look at the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated citizens as they try to find work, housing, and stable communities. Standing alongside these individual portraits is a quantitative study conducted by the authors that followed every state prisoner in Michigan who was released on parole in 2003 (roughly 11,000 individuals) for the next seven years, providing a comprehensive view of their postprison neighborhoods, families, employment, and contact with the parole system. On the Outside delivers a powerful combination of hard data and personal narrative that shows why our country continues to struggle with the social and economic reintegration of the formerly incarcerated. **