The Forgotten Man and White Populist Resentment: Power, Politics, and

Description

American political history has a rhythm and a progression. Part of that progression is White populist anger and resentment. The Forgotten Man and White Populist Resentment: Power, Politics, and Narrative Dominance in the Trump Era traces how this White populism rose to dominate the Republican Party primary base, how the populist campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich paved the way for the... Read more

American political history has a rhythm and a progression. Part of that progression is White populist anger and resentment. The Forgotten Man and White Populist Resentment: Power, Politics, and Narrative Dominance in the Trump Era traces how this White populism rose to dominate the Republican Party primary base, how the populist campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich paved the way for the rise of Donald Trump, and how he maintains narrative dominance over both parties and American political discourse.

Elites in Britain were the focus of resentment in the Revolutionary Era, as they presumed to tell the colonists that they were subject to taxes and domination of Great Britain. By the 1850s, populist resentment was transferred to the national government because it told the freedom‑loving, individual liberty‑defending, slave‑owning South that slavery was evil and would not be allowed to spread into the west. Both before and after suffering defeat, the poor White Southern male was told that he was equal with the elites of the Southern slave aristocracy because both are White and superior to all Blacks.

This resentment found a new iteration when the national government, using the power of the courts and the army, ended a century of Jim Crow forcing the White voters in Congressman Jim Jordan’s flyover country to live with Blacks as equals under the law. In 1969, Newsweek famously depicted the “Forgotten American” in this new social‑engineered America and the resentment of the imposed change in the cultural society the White voter was required to live in by the late 1960s. These voters resented that the America they now lived in was not the one they grew up in. The loss of “their” America was attributed to the federal government being controlled by social elites in Washington D.C. as well as Wall Street elites who in the 1990s asserted free trade and moved the factory jobs of the forgotten man overseas.

Presenting a clear and accessible narrative around the development of white populism and its resentment that shapes the narratives and rhetoric of the Trump era, this book is crucial for understanding the domestic and foreign policy initiatives of “America First” and “Make America Great Again.”

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Introduction, 1. White Populism and Trumpism Adopt the Narrative of the Forgotten Man, 2. Newsweek's Forgotten Man: White Populism and Trumpism's Adoption of the Great Replacement Theory, 3. Examining the Thoughts and Observations of Trumpism: Ideas, Rhetoric, and Values, 4. The Elections of 2008 and 2012 and COVID: Precursors to January 6th, 5. January 6th, 6. The January 6th Insurrection and Trumpism Prevails in the Republican Party, 7. The January 6th Insurrection and Why It Matters, 8. Trump and the 2022 Midterm Elections: A Precursor of the 2024 Elections, 9. The Rise of Authoritarianism: How It Can Happen Here, 10. The Rule of Law and Accountability to the Law: Executive Branch Attorneys Prevail over Trump’s Big Lie, 11. The Rule of Law and Accountability to the Law: How the Judiciary Held against Trumpism, 12. How Trump Won the 2024 Election, 13. Epilogue: Selected Executive Orders of Trump 2.0

Author(s)

Biography

Arthur H. Garrison is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Kutztown University. He holds a doctorate in law and policy from Northeastern University. Dr. Garrison’s research and publications include American political history, criminal justice history, race and policing, constitutional law, legal history, and criminal justice policymaking. He has also published research on the nature of Christianity and the foundations of Christianity in American and Western legal history.

Critics' Reviews

“Many progressives did not foresee the possibility of Donald Trump being twice elected and were blind to the fact that millions of men across the United States who despise feminist women, immigrants, refugees, and others at the margins now dominate the base of the Republican Party. How and why did this happen? This book is essential reading for anyone seeking meaningful answers to this question. It also sensitizes those seeking a more equitable society to the dangers of complacency and the need to develop short and long-term strategies for change in a time when this kind of visionary but pragmatic thinking is desperately needed.”

Walter S. DeKeseredy, Anna Deane Carlson Chair of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center on Violence and Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University

“A persuasive argument. Garrison illuminates how Trump has fatefully revived the white conservative politics of Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon.”

Charles Derber, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, and author of Bonfire (2025) and Fighting Oligarchy (2025)

“In The Forgotten Man and White Populist Resentment, Arthur Garrison offers a critical look at the forces within American conservatism that have culminated in the presidency of Donald Trump. Those concerned by Trump’s leadership will benefit from Garrison’s historical sweep and up-to-date analysis. Perhaps most crucially, Garrison also offers insight into how anti-Trump actors can offer more meaningful solutions to America’s problems to help keep the republic.”

Samuel Piccolo, Assistant Professor for Political Science, Baruch College, CUNY

“An illuminating account of how our long history of White racial politics of fear and resentment have pushed us toward where we are today: mainstreamed distrust of Federal authority, January 6 insurrection denial, election skepticism, disregard for the rule of law, criminalization of immigration, growth in autocratic presidential powers – in short, Trumpism.”

David Swartz, Professor of Sociology, Boston University, and author of The Academic Trumpists (Routledge, 2024)

The Forgotten Man and White Populist Resentment Power, Politics, and Narrative Dominance in the Trump Era

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

Critics' Reviews

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