Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2025-04-24
Books mentioned on The Very American Roots of Trumpism | The Ezra Klein Show
Ezra Klein discussed Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. Stephen Hahn recommended From the war on poverty to the war on crime by Elizabeth Kai Hinton and others and Troubled memory by Lawrence N. Powell.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a foundational sociological and political study analyzing the structure, culture, and institutions of American society from the perspective of an outside observer.
Discussed“One of the parts of your book I found interesting was your analysis of Alexis Dtoqueville's democracy in America. That's normally seen as a document laying out the early structure of America's inevitable ascent into liberal democracy.”
Where to get it
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From the war on poverty to the war on crime
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Kai Hinton and Elizabeth Hinton is a comprehensive historical examination of federal law enforcement policy and urban governance in the United States from the 1960s through the early 1970s.
Recommended“Elizabeth Hinton's book from the war on poverty to the war on crime which focuses on the 1960s into the early 1970s and is I think a very very interesting way of understanding how illiberal sensibilities kind of infuse their way into what are major modern liberal projects and paved the way for mass mass incarceration, which I learned a”
Where to get it
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Troubled memory
Troubled Memory by Lawrence N.
Recommended“And the the third book is a book by Lawrence Powell called Troubled Memory. Annne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Dukes, Louisiana.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Illiberal America
“He is a Pulzer Prizewinning historian at New York University, the author of the book Illiberal America. and he traces these tendencies back back all through our history in a way that I think is a bracing reminder that this is a fight that has been going on here for a long time.”