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Book Cover for: How Trump Happened: A System Shock Decades in the Making, Steven E. Schier

How Trump Happened: A System Shock Decades in the Making

Steven E. Schier

Racism. Sexism. Russian interference. A few thousand votes in key swing states. Political experts Steven Schier and Todd Eberly step back to trace the factors driving the stunning 2016 election of Donald Trump, arguing that Trump's victory was decades in the making. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the current political landscape.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  • Publish Date: Mar 9th, 2020
  • Pages: 176
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.60in - 5.70in - 0.80in - 0.75lb
  • EAN: 9781538122044
  • Categories: Political Process - Campaigns & ElectionsPolitical Process - Political PartiesAmerican Government - Executive Branch

About the Author

Steven E. Schier is Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Carleton College, where he taught for thirty-six years. Twelve times he directed the Carleton in Washington program, an off-campus term of study he founded in 1983. Dr. Schier is the author, co-author or editor of twenty-two books. His most recent titles for Rowman are The Trump Presidency: Outsider in the Oval Office (2017), coauthored with Todd E. Eberly, Debating the Obama Presidency (2016), an edited volume, and Polarized: The Rise of Ideology in US Politics (2016), also coauthored with Todd E. Eberly.

Todd E. Eberly is professor of Political Science and Public Policy at St. Mary's College of Maryland. He specializes in contemporary American politics with a focus on the effect of polarization on voters, government, and governing. Professor Eberly's has written 4 books with Steven Schier of Carleton College. Their first book, American Government and Popular Discontent was released in June, 2013. Their second book, The Rise of Ideology in America, was released in 2015. Their third book, The Trump Presidency: Outsider in the Oval Office was published in September 2017. Professor Eberly is an advisor to Project Vote Smart and his analysis and commentary have been featured in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, CNBC, and Public Radio/Television. He has served as an expert witness in cases challenging gerrymandered Congressional districts and has consulted with the centrist organization Third Way. He was named one of the most influential voices in Maryland politics by Campaigns and Elections magazine and the St. Mary's College Student Government Association honored him with the Faculty Student Life Award. He lives in Southern MD with his wife and two daughters.

Praise for this book

. . .a compelling narrative. [Schier and Eberly] examine Trump's social, political, and economic agenda, and speculate about Trump's future and the future of American politics post-Trump. The book gives important perspective about both the current state and the future of American politics.
All that astonishment when Donald Trump won the White House in 2016 - from the press, the polls, even the new president? Steven Schier and Todd Eberly argue in their provocative new book that it shouldn't have been a surprise. The rise of a celebrity, populist candidate who managed to vanquish the leading political dynasties in both parties was the predictable outcome of political trends long in the making, they say - and regardless of what happens to the Trump presidency, those powerful impulses aren't over yet.
The authors provide critically important insights into the historic 2016 election by distilling the national, long-term trends in the evolution of American democracy and how they intersected with Trump specific factors.
The election of Donald Trump continues to be an astounding event in American political history, and we are fortunate to have the incisive judgments and reporting of ace political observers Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly on the Trump phenomenon.
Donald Trump's election in 2016 shocked most journalists, and the professional political class broadly. Steven Schier and Todd Eberly assemble abundant evidence that we could have seen it coming. The questions--How was Trump able to take over the Republican Party? Why are so many partisans still with him despite the controversies of his first term?--will echo for decades in the future, but the answers begin decades in the past. These veteran political analysts identify the Trump victory not as a momentary spasm but the latest expression of a long-term revolt against elites in both parties.

How Trump Happened is written with a general audience in mind, offering accessible accounts of important moments in the 2016 campaign and the first three years of the Trump administration. It also deploys some of the tools of political science to build its argument about the election's outcome in a nontechnical fashion.