John B. Judis

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Why Has Nationalism Come Roaring Back?

Trump in America, Brexit in the U.K., anti-EU parties in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and nativist or authoritarian leaders in Turkey, Russia, India, and China -- Why has nationalism suddenly returned with a vengeance? Is the world headed back to the fractious conflicts between nations that led to world wars and depression in the early 20th Century? Why are nationalists so show more angry about free trade and immigration? Why has globalization become a dirty word?

Based on travels in America, Europe, and Asia, veteran political analyst John B. Judis found that almost all people share nationalist sentiments that can be the basis of vibrant democracies as well as repressive dictatorships. Today's outbreak of toxic "us vs. them" nationalism is an extreme reaction to utopian cosmopolitanism, which advocates open borders, free trade, rampant outsourcing, and has branded nationalist sentiments as bigotry. Can a new international order be created that doesn't dismiss what is constructive about nationalism? As he did for populism in The Populist Explosion, a runaway success after the 2016 election, Judis looks at nationalism from its modern origins in the 1800s to today to find answers.

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My Review: Much like The Populist Explosion, this 2018 book is a higher-level explainer to ground you in the essentials of nationalism's rise and development.

Post-WWII globalist institutions, created to combat the toxic fascist-infected nationalism running rampant today, have come a cropper in combating the nightmarish reality of resurgent and toxic nationalism—ironically because the institutions were using the weapons of the fascists, shame, Othering, and punishment, against them.

The force that is today's nationalist/fascist movement proves the weapons they themselves used ultimately hastened their own end in WWII.

The force of nationalism, like the force of populism, cannot be repressed forever, nor can it be reasoned out of people; it must be accounted for, if not exactly accommodated, in the politics of the twenty-first century. These are emotional responses to triggering events that make followers feel insecure. It cannot be stated enough that facts disproving emotive claims are ineffective in the face of passionately held feelings.

The points made in this book, that nationalists are not all wrong and the liberal elites are not listening to them could not be clearer in 2024. This US election was disastrously mishandled, manipulated by some very clear-sighted and goal-directed people, and need not have resulted in the the awful way that it did. Author Judis is very clear about how we fell into the trap we did; the job now is making the changes, personal, political, and societal, that need making to prevent the incoming administration from throwing US and by extension global society into far worse channels than we're already headed into.

An excellent companion read to The Populist Explosion and a worthy exploration of forces we as a society need to comprehend and harness to productive use. show less

Is socialism the flavor of the moment, picked up by a younger generation that has no clue how horrific it would be? John Judis, whose life has been socialism, says it is far more than that. In The Socialist Awakening, he shows that today’s vision of socialism is far different. This is not your great grandfather’s socialism. It has been molded and adapted for the 21st century by thinkers who are witnessing the horrors of an unfettered and corrupt market economy. Socialism is primed to be show more a major factor in national politics for the foreseeable future. There might actually be a choice between the two parties going forward.

First, how do Millennials not cringe at the word? For one thing, no one is seriously talking about a takeover. There will be no glorious revolution. Millennials can plainly see socialism working beautifully with in the capitalist system, without destroying what has been positive. Judis says “They see socialism as developing within capitalism, the way capitalism developed within feudalism. Socialism creates institutions and laws that fulfill the ethical ideals of liberty, equality, justice, democracy, and social solidarity.”

And when the young advance guard talks about socialism, it is not defensive, but analytical. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says “When Millennials talk about socialism, we’re talking about countries and systems that already exist that have already proven to be successful in the modern world. We’re talking about single-payer healthcare that has already been successful in in many different models, from Finland to Canada to the UK.”

So the dreaded socialism does not raise panic among Millennials. It is closer to jealousy, as America fails to deliver on dream after dream for its own citizens.

The book is compact and compressed and easy to digest. Judis quickly reviews the various stages socialism has evolved through, from purist Marxism, to various colors of populism, through its all but total disappearance (in the USA), to its evident resurgence. It is a valuable overview. It’s good to know where all this came from and why what is being proposed today is a far better, more reasonable and achievable version of an idea that has kept changing without boundaries. Principles, sure. But not boundaries. Socialism, like every political force, has been all over the place, and Judis has collected it in tight paragraphs for all to see and understand.

This is the final book of a trilogy, the others being devoted to populism and nationalism. But socialism is the most controversial, and for many, especially the older generations, the most fearsome. The very word alone is enough to stir fury among the boomers, because it is somehow the opposite of total freedom. There is nothing about it that could possibly be of benefit to Americans, and they dismiss anything that smacks of it before it can be discussed.

For Millennials, membership should have its privileges. If the USA is the most advanced and the richest nation, why is there so much misery, poverty, sickness, debt and self-destruction? There doesn’t have to be, and the evidence is just across borders. They see it as insanity that the US is so far behind.

The lightning rod has been Bernie Sanders. Judis says Sanders is the most important (American) figure in socialism since Eugene Debs, who ran for president numerous times and brought socialism from church-like clubs and assemblies to a nationally-recognized political force.

In the 2016 primaries, Sanders got more votes from 18-29 year olds than Clinton and Trump combined. By January 2020, polls were showing that well over 2/3 think government should be doing more to solve problems. The catalysts, Judis says, were the financial crisis, climate change, and Trump. The result is an insurgence within the Democratic Party (it couldn’t possibly happen in today’s Republican Party), clearly favored by the young.

Even though Sanders didn’t get the nomination, he has clearly moved the goalposts to the left. The Democratic Party now talks in Sanders’ terms, nothing like what it was like under Obama or Clinton or Carter. Biden has asked Sanders to put his people in Biden’s taskforces looking at issues and policies. This alone has changed the political dynamic in the USA.

Judis draws clear lines among socialism, populism and nationalism. But he insists socialism needs nationalism to work. The long-held belief of socialists that everything should be universal, that everyone should help everyone and love everyone – stops at the border for Judis. He says it can’t work if people can move to the USA and leave at will. The USA can’t provide jobs to all comers. Free healthcare can’t simply be offered to everyone who seeks it from anywhere in the world. He says nationalism is a key component to making it work within capitalism. And it needs to be within the borders of the nation-state.

We’re nowhere near that point.

In a chapter on British socialism, Judis traces its more successful trail, with all its ups and downs. It is very real, and there are lessons to be found if Americans want to look. Much as Trump is obsessed with dismantling everything ever achieved by Obama, so Thatcher was obsessed with dismantling everything ever achieved by Labour. It has tortured the British economy and society ever since. Judis dismisses political compromises like British Labour’s “Third Way” under Blair as misguided, ineffective and unworkable. A third way is nothing to vote for.

In Judis’ view, capitalism is not going away. It is too well entrenched and has too many accomplishments going for it to just be tossed aside. Millennials see that. They are not about overthrow. They do not have manifestos, militias or martyrs on offer. What socialism means to them is greater equality and enhanced social services. To them, Trump has pushed the pendulum about as far to the right as it can go. The time has come for it to swing back. And he, the pandemic, the recession and climate change have primed it to do so.

David Wineberg show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: John Judis is the author of one of the seminal books about the 2016 election, The Populist Explosion, which has sold 38,000 copies and was named One of six books to help understand Trump's win by The New York Times and The Economist called it "Well-written and well-researched, powerfully argued and perfectly timed." Judis is also the author of The Nationalist Revival, published in 2018, which was highly acclaimed and has sold over 9,000 copies. EJ Dionne show more in The American Prospect called it essential reading.

Both titles have been popular as course adoptions Judis is a veteran political reporter who examines national and global political trends through a nonpartisan lens. He specializes in speaking truth to liberals, wrote EJ Dionne in The Washington Post. Through his long career in progressive journalism, Judis has made a habit of seeing things that others were missing. With his new book examining the new socialism of the left, he once again provides a clarifying look at one of the biggest political trends of our time. Completes Judis's political trilogy explaining the Trump era.

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My Review: I read this book, and I believed it was true. I do not now know if its analysis of Millennials is accurate, and thus what happened in November 2024 was an anomaly of some sort...read "the results were manipulated like they were in 2016"...or if Author Judis is just like the rest of us elitists on the left who just want to believe as much as Fox Mulder wanted to believe.

Maybe I'm an idiot (stop snickering) but I choose door number optimism.

My generation, like the one before us and the one immediately after, fell for the capitalist lies about socialism = totalitarianism, thus flat refused to see the way socialism rescued capitalism from a full-on leftist rebellion during the Great Depression, and created the most powerful economy in the history of the planet, and reduced immiseration on a scale so epic that the Economic Royalists have spent forty-five years fighting back all the gains made so their power will once again be unchallenged and unshared.

I am deeply distressed that the plan is succeeding still, accelerating even, as they roll out the fascist facets of their controlling regime. All it took was repeating the old lies about Others that regularly succeed in scaring the crap out of the delicate little manbabies who can't tolerate anyone not looking/acting/thinking exactly like them.

So reading this book felt a little like masochism. It also felt a lot like a call to arms, a path marked towards reclaiming the future from the tech scum of the Nerd Reich before it becomes nigh-on impossible.

Don't shirk your part in the battle for the future. #ReadingIsResistance show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From the author of THE POLITICS OF OUR TIME

What’s happening in global politics, and is there a thread that ties it all together?

There is, and it is called populism.

What is populism? And why have populist parties and candidates suddenly sprung up and even gained power in the United States and Western Europe? The emergence of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, France's Marine LePen, Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, and the Alternative for Germany are show more signs that an older consensus about politics and government is breaking down.

John B. Judis, one of America's most respected political analysts, tells us why we need to understand the populist movement that began in the United States in the 1890s and whose politics have recurred on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. The Populist Explosion is essential reading for anyone hoping to grasp a global political system that is only just beginning what will be a long-running and highly consequential readjustment.

Featured as one of "Six Books to Help Understand Trump's (2016) Win" by The New York Times

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My Review: A very interesting read that boils the toxic goo of this moment in history's outrage and grievance into an easy-to-swallow dose. The author's a reputable source of wisdom for leftists for over fifty years. See his Wikipedia page. His take on the issue of seething rage and outrage at being derided, ignored, and exploited among huge swaths of the world's people is well worth your effort to read attentively; it is arguably the reason we are where we are on many fronts.

No one will ever convince me that 45 thought up the campaign that returned him to the White House. There are very, very rich and powerful and canny people who want him where he is. Those are the people who redesigned the way his campaign looked. The slide from populism into fascism, as Judis defines that term, has accelerated. The 2024 man is clearly modeled on Orban and Putin, Cult-of-Personality rulers who have created cadres of supporters who do the leader's bidding. This is something that has developed since this book was written. Judis defines fascism, then says unequivocally in this book that 45 is not one. That is simply not...or no longer is...true.

The truth is, though, understanding the way the people who voted for the redesigned 45 chose this path is something we all need to make the effort to do. The world is not going to end soon. *My* world will; most of my friends' and descendants and countrymen's worlds will too; so I'm quite clearly motivated to be focused on the topic. How we can make the world better for the largest number of people now alive is another strong motivator to get into this topic. I very strongly disapprove of the mental illness of hoarding and greed that constitutes our current economic system. I know this is a common opinion. The canny operators who redesigned the campaign that landed 45 back in power knew there needed to be a hook they could hang a future movement on.

Populism will not survive contact with the stated goals of this group's plan for power. Fascism will.

Learn how we got here, apply these rules to the world to come, and resist. show less