Trump's America
Political Culture and National Identity
Edited by Liam Kennedy
- Explores Trump in an intellectually robust way, linking his election and presidency to broader themes of American political history and culture
- Examines the disruption to the American political system and shifting conceptions of the American national identity in the wake of Trump’s election
- Illuminates the convergence of political life and entertainment in the Trump era, and the ways in which the American public sphere is being radically reconfigured by new and social media to polarise American political discourse
- Features contributions from a truly international range of scholars and professionals working in political journalism
Donald J. Trump’s presidency has delivered a seismic shock to the American political system, its public sphere, and to our political culture worldwide. Written by leading scholars across a range of disciplines, as well as professionals in the field of political journalism, this collection of essays offers a deeper understanding of Trump and the impact that his rise to power has had both domestically and worldwide.
The first section provides varied perspectives on the realignments of political culture in the United States that signify a paradigm shift, a radical disruption of fundamental beliefs and values about the political process and national identity. The second section of the book focuses on US foreign policy and diplomacy, taking stock of how the Trump presidency has disturbed the international system and US primacy within it. The third section of the book addresses the dynamics and consequences of what has come to be called "post-truth" politics, where conviction surpasses facts and the norms of political communication have been profoundly disrupted.
List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgements
Introduction: Making Sense of Trump’s AmericaLiam Kennedy
Part One: Paradigm Shift
1. Donald Trump’s Settler-Colonist State (Fantasy): A New Era of Illiberal Hegemony? Donald E. Pease
2. Caesarism Revisited: Cultural Studies and The Question of Trumpism Stephen Shapiro
3. Hegemoronic Vistas: The Pseudo-Gramscian Right from the Powell Memo to ‘The Flight 93 Election’ Frank Kelleter
4. Women Voters and Activists in Trump’s AmericaMelissa Deckman and Kelly M. Gardner
Part Two: Foreign Policy and Global Relations
5. Angry at the World: Progressive Possibilities in Trump’s Disruption of the Current Order Patrick McGreevy
6. Trump or the Cultural Logic of "Late" Democracy David Ryan
7. The End of the Age of Three Worlds and the Making of the Trump Presidency Penny Von Eschen
8. Trumpism and the Future of US Grand Strategy Jack Thompson
9. From George W. Bush to Donald Trump: Understanding the Exceptional Resilience of Democracy Promotion in US Political Discourse Eugenio Lilli
Part Three: Identity Politics and the Politics of Spectacle
10. ‘If You Want to Know Why 2016 Happened, Read This Book’: Class, Race, and the Literature of Disinvestment (the Case of Hillbilly Elegy) Hamilton Carroll
11. Ivanka Trump and the New Plutocratic (Post)feminism Diane Negra
12. Trump and the Age of Hybrid Media Communicators Alireza Hajihosseini
13. ‘Reality has a Well-Known Liberal Bias’: The End(s) of Satire in Trump’s America Liam Kennedy
14. Spectacle of Decency: Repairing America After Trump Scott Lucas
Index
Trump’s America offers worthy early analysis of the damaging legacy of Trump’s illiberal democracy and a testament to the relevance of cross-disciplinary American Studies in producing meaning from the complexity of the United States and, as Kennedy and Shapiro suggest, asking the right kind of questions “to begin the daunting task of creating a new cultural hegemony.
Trump’s America offers worthy early analysis of the damaging legacy of Trump’s illiberal democracy and a testament to the relevance of cross-disciplinary American Studies in producing meaning from the complexity of the United States and, as Kennedy and Shapiro suggest, asking the right kind of questions “to begin the daunting task of creating a new cultural hegemony.”
A must-read for anyone interested in Trump’s administration. In this volume, influential scholars succinctly explain and assess the major themes of the Trump presidency from his war on the deep state to his foreign policy agenda.
