A careful analysis of the social media campaigns of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and the Brexit campaigners, which shows how today's new nationalists are cultivating support from white majorities by tapping into their history and culture.
Across the West, there has been a resurgence of ethnic nationalism, populism, and anti-immigrant sentiment - a phenomenon that many commentators have called the "new nationalism." In The New Nationalism in America and Beyond, Robert Schertzer and Eric Taylor Woods seek to understand why the bastions of liberalism are proving to be fertile ground for a decidedly illiberal ideology. To do so, they examine the social media campaigns of three of the most successful exemplars of the new nationalism: Donald Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen in France, and Brexit in the UK. Schertzer and Woods show how today's new nationalists are cultivating support from white majorities by drawing from long-standing myths and symbols to construct an image of the nation as an ethnic community. Their cutting-edge and multidisciplinary approach combines elements of political science, sociology, history, and communication and media studies, to show how leaders today are updating the historical foundations of ethnic nationalism for the digital age.
In The New Nationalism in America and Beyond, Robert Schertzer and Eric Taylor Woods, explain why ethnic nationalists like Donald Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen in France, and the Brexit campaigners in the UK have gained so much support in the last few years. Through careful analysis of the social media campaigns of these "new nationalists," Schertzer and Woods show how these leaders are tapping into the history and culture of white majorities. Their cutting-edge and multidisciplinary approach--combining elements of political science, sociology, history, and communication and media studies--highlights how leaders today are updating the historical foundations of ethnic identity for the digital age to win elections.
Timely and insightful, Schertzer and Woods fundamentally remind us that nations are not only political but also cultural projects, rooted in repertoires of myths and symbols that ethnic majorities seek to defend against perceived existential threats. This rigorous, thoughtful examination of the rise of ethnic nationalism in the West adeptly anchors the political mobilization of white majorities in the defensive postures that define them while simultaneously explaining the broader historical and cultural contexts that are so often missing from contemporary analyses. An exceptional read!
