Originally published in 1962. In The Road to Normalcy, Wesley M. Bagby explains how the election of 1920 contributed to momentous shifts in American politics by detailing why the major political parties abandoned sentiments that were widely accepted several years prior to the election. Prior to World War I, two significant streams of progressivism maintained center stage in American politics—the Progressive movement and the world peace movement. The war proved not to be prohibitively distracting for the Progressive movement, which carried on well into the war years. But the war also introduced new elements into American political life, such as the restriction of free speech, popular outbursts of intolerance and hatred encouraged by war propaganda, and a belief in the necessity and efficacy of violence. Many of these elements eroded the ideals undergirding the Progressive movement. The international peace movement reflected the spirit of idealistic internationalism that characterized the tenor of American foreign policy from the beginning to the end of the war. However, the election of 1920, the first presidential election after World War I, addressed the question of whether America would resume its progressive efforts at home and abroad following the war. The election ultimately stymied both political currents, proving to be an end for both the Progressive movement and the world peace movement.

A "superb" and "ambitious" (New York Times) intellectual and political history of the last century of American conservatism When most people think of modern conservatism, they think of Ronald Reagan. Yet this narrow view leaves many to question: How did Donald Trump win the presidency? And what is the future of the Republican Party? In The Right, Matthew Continetti gives a sweeping account of movement conservatism's evolution, from the Progressive Era through the present. He tells the story of how conservatism began as networks of intellectuals, developing and institutionalizing a vision that grew over time, only to see their creation buckle under new pressures from national populist movements. Drawing out the tensions between the desire for mainstream acceptance and the pull of extremism, Continetti argues that the more one studies conservatism's past, the more one becomes convinced of its future. Updated with a new epilogue, The Right is essential reading for anyone looking to understand American conservatism.

An essential part of a journalist's responsibility is to listen, observe, ask good questions, and then listen some more. For too long, too few journalists have taken this responsibility seriously. This has been particularly true in the Trump era. Most political journalists failed to anticipate Donald Trump's rise because they are utterly unable to understand his appeal. From the start, they treated Trumpism as a pathology. They dismissed his voters as being guided by bigotry, ignorance, and fear. Needless to say, this has skewed their coverage.Worst of all, no one seems to have learned anything. The media malpractice that characterized the 2016 presidential campaign has arguably become even worse during the Trump presidency. Most of the media have remained unwilling or unable to understand and objectively report on the people and places that put Trump in the White House. When reporters do venture into “Trump's America,” they typically parachute in for only a few hours in search of evidence to confirm their pre-written narratives. Daniel Allott decided to take a different approach. In the spring of 2017, he left his position at a Washington, D.C. political magazine and began reporting from across the country. He spent much of the following three years living in and reporting from nine counties that were crucial to understanding the 2016 election; they will be equally crucial to determining who will win in 2020. This book is not just a study of Trump voters. Allott spoke with as many people as he could regardless of their politics; farmers and professors; congressmen and homeless people; refugees and drug addicts; students and retirees; progressives, conservatives, and people with no discernible or consistent political ideology. His one preference was for “switchers” — people who voted one way in 2016 and have subsequently changed their minds ahead of the 2020 election. Allot discovered that these voters are like an endangered species in Trump's America. Allott's goal wasn't simply to learn why people had voted the way they did in 2016, or to predict how they might vote in 2020. It was also to chart how their lives and circumstances changed over the course of Trump's first term in office, and how the values and priorities that inform their political views might have changed. The accounts will challenge preconceived ideas about who the people in these places are, what motivates their decisions, and what animates their lives.

In this book leading American politics experts examine every facet of the stunning 2020 election and its aftermath, and how these events will impact America moving forward. Each contributor goes beyond the headlines and dives into the underlying forces and shifts that drove the election from its earliest developments to its chaotic conclusion.