Zack Beauchamp: The Virtue of Nationalism and Whiteshift:...

Zack Beauchamp: The Virtue of Nationalism and Whiteshift: Books that Explain Trump: "The new reactionaries: Two new books reveal the coalition of far-right nationalists and anti-PC warriors who define the modern political right: Why has President Trump gone to such extraordinary lengths to build a wall on the Mexican border?... Ethnonationalism is behind the wall and Trump���s overall immigration policy, as well as his approach to racialized issues like civil rights and police violence. It explains his affinity with a host of powerful far-right European parties.... Few scholars are interested in turning the scattered political proposals of Trump and the European far right into a coherent political program. But recently, two new books shed light on what that could look like: Israeli scholar Yoram Hazony���s The Virtue of Nationalism and University of London professor Eric Kaufmann���s Whiteshift. One is a work of political philosophy, and the other a quantitative look at the demography and views of far-right supporters. One is written by an avowed conservative, the other by a self-described liberal. One is poorly reasoned (at best), the other tightly argued. What the two books have in common is that they go beyond articulating part of the ethnonationalist worldview to actively defending core parts of it...

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