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Backlash Presidents: From Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History
How most presidents avoid upsetting the racial status quo―and why those who do pave the way for lawless, norm-violating successors
When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, becoming the nation’s first Black president, the stage was set for Donald Trump’s eventual rise to power. Backlash Presidents shows how, throughout American history, administrations that challenge the country’s racial status quo are followed by presidents who deal in racially charged politics and presidential lawlessness, culminating in impeachment crises.
In this incisive book, Julia Azari traces the connections between racially transformative presidents and their successors, examining the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and Obama and Trump. When he signed long-awaited civil rights legislation in 1964, Lyndon Johnson unleashed a perfect political storm that swept Nixon into the White House. Azari demonstrates how Nixon’s rhetoric, relationship to Congress, and attitudes about executive power exhibit striking parallels with Andrew Johnson and Trump. She discusses how their actions are linked to race and racialized institutions―the Department of War during Reconstruction, the FBI during the Nixon years, and elections today―and looks at what happens after impeachment, describing how the rush to establish a new order perpetuates many of the same problems as the old.
Challenging the conventional wisdom of about the role of norms in American democracy, Backlash Presidents reveals how normal presidential politics upholds unsustainable racial hierarchy that in turn gives rise to intense periods of instability.
When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, becoming the nation’s first Black president, the stage was set for Donald Trump’s eventual rise to power. Backlash Presidents shows how, throughout American history, administrations that challenge the country’s racial status quo are followed by presidents who deal in racially charged politics and presidential lawlessness, culminating in impeachment crises.
In this incisive book, Julia Azari traces the connections between racially transformative presidents and their successors, examining the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and Obama and Trump. When he signed long-awaited civil rights legislation in 1964, Lyndon Johnson unleashed a perfect political storm that swept Nixon into the White House. Azari demonstrates how Nixon’s rhetoric, relationship to Congress, and attitudes about executive power exhibit striking parallels with Andrew Johnson and Trump. She discusses how their actions are linked to race and racialized institutions―the Department of War during Reconstruction, the FBI during the Nixon years, and elections today―and looks at what happens after impeachment, describing how the rush to establish a new order perpetuates many of the same problems as the old.
Challenging the conventional wisdom of about the role of norms in American democracy, Backlash Presidents reveals how normal presidential politics upholds unsustainable racial hierarchy that in turn gives rise to intense periods of instability.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 23, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2026
Fascinating examination of the backlashes (and impeachments) of three pivotal US Presidents: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump, each of whom followed a President who lead a transformation in the parameters surrounding racism in the US. A brief side trip into the Clinton impeachment is included, demonstrating that while race was not as central to his impeachment (or presidency), he was nonetheless transformative in many ways, and in ways that cannot be divorced from race.
There is of course a competing theory of politics that none of this really matters, and that the determining factor in elections is virtually always the state (or perceived state) of the economy. Prof. Azari mentions the state of the economy a couple of times, it it would be interesting to see a more
Robust charting of how well the economy was doing during each of these “backlash” presidencies.
That quibble aside, this is clearly a well sourced serious academic book, which has the huge advantage of being entirely readable by people like me with no background in political science (which should surprise no one who has been reading Prof Azari’s blog posts over the last few years!
There is of course a competing theory of politics that none of this really matters, and that the determining factor in elections is virtually always the state (or perceived state) of the economy. Prof. Azari mentions the state of the economy a couple of times, it it would be interesting to see a more
Robust charting of how well the economy was doing during each of these “backlash” presidencies.
That quibble aside, this is clearly a well sourced serious academic book, which has the huge advantage of being entirely readable by people like me with no background in political science (which should surprise no one who has been reading Prof Azari’s blog posts over the last few years!
January 21, 2026
Informative and insightful about the throughline of racial politics in impeachments and bad presidential behavior. Her "backlash" theory takes different forms throughout history based on the norms and circumstances at the time, but in my view holds in all the circumstances she describes. Only the Clinton impeachment doesn't fit because it was based on simple partisan politics, real disruption.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews