I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

This was outstanding: very thought-provoking and well-written.

Review copy provided by publisher.

A very interesting book that attempts to argue:

(1) that modern Democratic Party perceptions of populism are wrong to say that populism is necessarily related to anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian movements

and (2) that populism (particularly embracing economic justice and moving away from elite consensus) are the ways to advance liberal political goals.

I find the historical survey in in the book fascinating and enlightening, but don't think his point (1) is valid. It doesn't matter what populism was, it matters what it is today. That said, I found his point 2 utterly convincing. Concerns around economic justice are absent in the mainstream for either party, and class and income and economic concerns have been short circuited by culture war issues. Frank seems to put equal weight on liberal twitter cancel culture and conservative social wedge issues, which seems like a fale equivalence to me, especially since he is pretty light in his citations in that section. That said, I think the overall point makes sense that a coalition for a just society must include economic justice and the full inclusion of the entire working class.

I started listening to "The People, No" in the car, and my teen son asked if he could continue listening to it. Then I put it back on while we were making breakfast, and my husband asked if we could leave it on, he wanted to hear more. Thomas Frank does a good job narrating his book, his own engagement with the subject of his book comes through and is contagious. You want to hear more, find out more, think about what he's saying. It's an interesting history, that of populism in the US and how the term has evolved or devolved. It offers another angle with which to analyze the current climate we're in and the current President we have. The populism attack, he argues, is historically inaccurate as well as imprecise, other terms can offer more specific and useful criticism. Anti-populism has its own history that merits thoughtful analysis and a breakdown of the interests behind them. He defends populism in a more limited definition, harkening to its origins. It's an interesting academic exercise, but I wonder how useful or practical it is in our present reality. Isn't it limiting to define populism only in its best intended form in a specific moment in history and in this specific country? After all populism could take different forms in different moments of history, different places in the world, coming from opposite political vantage points. You can have a Chavez and a Trump, using anti-elitist rhetoric in a way that is cynical and manipulative, a manipulation is meant to serve another set of elites on their side, rather than "the people" in general.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've previously read "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and this is a good prequel I would say to that - a history of the current movements around elites vs popular culture, how ideas of solidarity got turned into racism, and how the wealthy ended up calling their chosen leader a populist even though he lost the popular vote. This is a history of anti-populism, as such, it also has to include a history of populism. It's interesting to read now as protests rock the country again, and anti-populist rhetoric is being applied to pretty much everything right now - popular protest, the President, etc. To some degree, this is a fight against a tide as "The People, No" attempts to reclaim the term populism. His description of a movement of lower-class solidarity across racial and geographic divides against the abuses of the elite is interesting and at times almost lyrical. Thomas Frank describes the repeated attempts to build an integrated movement for the advancement of poor Americans that is intentionally opposed by wealthy and well-connected people in power. It shows the historic racial divisions that were stoked to divide these movements, from the 1890s through the assassination of Dr. King and various politicians who used racist rhetoric without any actual populist policy. Frank rails against academic historians and media powers that use the term populism for those race-baiting politicians, and reserves specific anger against Richard Hofstadter for errors in "The Age of Reform". It's good to see the intersectionality of interests across a wide demographic that Frank's version of populism embraces, including civil rights and labor rights and women's rights and debtors rights, It would be a better world with the empowerment of these groups and solidarity among them - this book might help those within or next to those groups see it.

One of the things about reading audiobooks narrated by the author is emotions come through - and Thomas Frank is angry about what has happened to populism in America. If you're not angry about America right now, I don't even know where to begin, so that's understandable enough. In one of those inevitable moments in a book like this he spends a bit of time scolding liberals for being too scolding, among many other less ironic criticisms. The author uses lyrical prose that comes across best in audio form "..an agrarian radicalism had disappeared, a peculiar thing happened, populism went in the academic interpretation machine and came out something different, something sinister". This called to mind the talk-singing of Gorillaz album Demon Days, and specifically I started preparing for the musical breakdowns of "Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head" but then I got more history of populism and anti-populism. While "The People, No" is a bit dryer than a musical album, I appreciate the lyricism of the history book and the political messaging of the musical album.

I recommend this if you're interested in political history, populism, etc. Read as an audiobook narrated by the author through NetGalley.

I listened to this and found it to be an informative read. The author provided facts in a manner that was easy to stay listening.