Trump and Us

Communication, Society and Politics

by Roderick P. Hart

Why did 62 million Americans vote for Donald Trump? Trump and Us offers a fresh perspective on this question, taking seriously the depth and breadth of Trump's support. An expert in political language, Roderick P. Hart turns to Trump's words, voters' remarks, and media commentary for insight. The book offers the first systematic rhetorical analysis of Trump's 2016 campaign and early presidency, using text analysis and archives of earlier presidential campaigns to uncover deep emotional undercurrents in the country and provide historical comparison. Trump and Us pays close attention to the emotional dimensions of politics, above and beyond cognition and ideology. Hart argues it was not partisanship, policy, or economic factors that landed Trump in the Oval Office but rather how Trump made people feel.

Genres: Politics

280 pages, Paperback

Published March 19, 2020

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six stars! Ever since DT came on the political scene I've been trying to get my mind around his phenomenon. I've tried to keep up with commentaries about him and thought myself knowledgeable. Turns out, after reading this exhaustive analysis, not so much. This book is more about the mindset of the 62 million who voted for Trump (hence, no doubt, the big US on the cover of my PB edition) and how they were duped, how he's exploited their frustrations, anxieties and paranoias (which harks back to a book I read long ago in grad school but had forgotten about, Richard Hofstadter's Anti-intellectualism in American Life). Overall, this tome is an even-handed assessment of the Trump phenomenon. Hart weaves together many quotations to support his theses (footnoting is extensive). Indeed, Trump is not a conventional politician; he uses outlandish Tweets to display his outrageous self, thus attracting press coverage. Often, as I read this book, I found myself nodding, “Yes, yes, right on!” Now to go back and re-read, nay, study and absorb.

[Roger Smitter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hart provides some answers to the question, "How could Hillary have won in 2016?' Hart's focus throughout the book is to explain how the population saw something in Trump that drove them to vote for him. The narrative is engaging. The book provides over 30 pages of resources used in the book, making this read a good choice for political science students at all levels. Historians will want to read this book too.

[Yuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative, and from social linguistic point of view, I like all the analysis from Trump corpus, and all charts showed readers a clear comparison between Trump and other candidates or presidents. The author analysed from various voters' perspectives, and his analysis of Trump is as well easy to read, with proper depth, and just have the good amount of past-present-future division.

The chapter is definitely well structured. Within each chapter, the author explains his goals in the beginning, and summaries clearly in conclusion part. It is definitely not the dry boring academic book for academic readers.

I would like to particularly mention is how nice I found the book title is. It is a challenge to write a book about Trump, objectively analysing his corpus, intention and influence, moreover, to link him with "us". Very inspiring book. Highly recommend!

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A carefully developed insight on how Trump’s rhetoric functioned/was interpreted, but overall the piece was a little repetitive. Still, this was my introduction to idea of the political “paranoid style” and that idea will definitely stick with me.

[Ken Moskowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent scholarly look at Trump's language. Something for both the pro- and anti-crowds, but not a polemical book.