The Presidency of Donald J. Trump presents a first draft of history by offering needed perspective on one of the nation’s most divisive presidencies. Acclaimed political historian Julian Zelizer brings together many of today’s top scholars to provide balanced and strikingly original assessments of the major issues that shaped the Trump presidency.
When Trump took office in 2017, he quickly carved out a loyal base within an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, dominated the news cycle with an endless stream of controversies, and presided over one of the most contentious one-term presidencies in American history. These essays cover the crucial aspects of Trump’s time in office, including his administration’s close relationship with conservative media, his war on feminism, the solidification of a conservative women’s movement, his response to COVID-19, the border wall, growing tensions with China and NATO allies, white nationalism in an era of Black Lives Matter, and how the high-tech sector flourished.
The Presidency of Donald J. Trump reveals how Trump was not the cause of the political divisions that defined his term in office but rather was a product of long-term trends in Republican politics and American polarization more broadly.
With contributions by Kathleen Belew, Angus Burgin, Geraldo Cadava, Merlin Chowkwanyun, Bathsheba Demuth, Gregory Downs, Jeffrey Engel, Beverly Gage, Nicole Hemmer, Michael Kazin, Daniel C. Kurtzer, James Mann, Mae Ngai, Margaret O’Mara, Jason Scott Smith, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Leandra Zarnow.
Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. A CNN political analyst and a regular guest on NPR, he is the author of many books, including Burning Down the House, The Fierce Urgency of Now, and Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement. Twitter @julianzelizer
"After thousands of articles and scores of books about Donald Trump’s mostly catastrophic presidency, it’s difficult for anyone to break dramatic new ground. But this new volume, with contributions from 18 American academics, is broader and deeper than all its predecessors."—Charles Kaiser, Guardian
"This book comes as a welcome corrective to the news media's eternal puzzlement over Trump: It's a rich collection that significantly expands perspectives, beyond the familiar media frames, across a wide range of topics."—Paul Rosenberg, Salon
"Essential reading for historians of the United States and anyone who hopes to understand, on a more fundamental level, the antecedents to and potential consequences of the Trump years. . . . Sharp and incisive"—Paul Renfro, Slate
"The authors of these essays should be commended for not letting the Trump years simply flash before their eyes and for putting pen to paper to compose their own first drafts. In The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment, they have carried out an Operation Warp Speed of their own and helped us better understand the most crazed and frenetic presidency of our lifetimes."—Nick Bryant, Foreign Policy
"Even if Trump doesn't run for president in 2024, he and others will keep trying to confect their little mythologies, and someone will need to counter them with evidence. And even if this feels like fruitless work . . . it's still always essential."—Brandon Sanchez, New York Magazine
"Recommended."—Choice
“For much of his presidency, Donald Trump routinely made bold claims about his administration’s prominent place in history. Now we have the first full assessment of the Trump presidency by a group of first-rate American historians. This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand where Trumpism fits in the larger arc of American history.”—Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton University
“This wonderful book manages at once to illustrate how profoundly strange our recent history has been while also situating it in the broad trends of the past fifty years. Readers bewildered by current events can look here for context, insight, and perspective.”—Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics
“Julian Zelizer has curated a multidimensional inquiry into a presidency that even Donald Trump himself is interested in defining historically. Much is at stake in doing so: its nature and novelties were disputed from the first, and the contributors bring clarity and perspective that changed my mind on a series of points.”—Samuel Moyn, Yale University
