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New York Time Book Lists: Understanding the Election: Home

The New York Times recently published two different book lists/reviews with titles that can help readers understand the sociocultural factors behind Donald Trumps unexpected victory. Here are these titles in Van Wylen Library's collection!

Six New York Times Books

“6 Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win.” The New York Times 9 Nov. 2016. NYTimes.com. Web. 2 Dec. 2016.
"For those trying to understand the political, economic, regional and social shifts that drove one of the most stunning political upsets in the nation’s history on Tuesday, we have some suggested reading from our critics and reviewers."
Remember: if Van Wylen's copy is checked out you can always use the Find In MeLCat links to order a copy from another Michigan library!

Predicting the Election

Tweeted paragraphs from Rorty's work that sparked a run on the book after the electon:

[M]embers of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.

At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. …

One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past 40 years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. … All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.