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Every book John Gans recommended on podcasts
John Gans appears on intellectual discussion programs like The Ezra Klein Show, where he analyzes American politics, the evolution of the political right, history, and cultural movements. Gans provides thoughtful reading recommendations that unpack the historical and ideological underpinnings of contemporary political dynamics. For insights into political extremism and rhetoric, he recommends David Austin Walsh's Taking America Back, Laura K. Field's Furious Minds, which examines MAGA intellectuals, and Leo Lowenthal and Norbert Gutderman's classic Profits of Deceit, noting its detailed analysis of anti-Semitic agitation. Looking further back into American history, Gans recommends Daniel Walker Howe's expansive What Hath God Wrought to understand the Jacksonian era. For shorter reads on modern political division and the ideological roots of authoritarianism, he points listeners toward Samuel Goldman's After Nationalism and Fritz R. Stern's The Politics of Cultural Despair.
Books recommended by John Gans
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After Nationalism
After Nationalism by Samuel Goldman is a political analysis examining the challenges of American identity and national unity in an era of deep division.
Recommended“if you don't want to read a 900 page book I can offer something much shorter which is a book called after nationalism being American in an age of division by Samuel Goldman”
Where to get it
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Furious Minds
Furious Minds by Laura K.
Recommended“One is Furious Minds. Uh, it's a new book by Laura K. field which is about um MAGA intellectuals the new right and how that how they justify explain rationalize things that are going on gave arguments for it”
Where to get it
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Prophets of deceit
Prophets of Deceit by Leo Lowenthal and Norbert Guterman is an insightful, classic analysis that meticulously breaks down the psychological and rhetorical techniques employed by American political agitators and propagandists.
Recommended“and the third one is a very old book and a little bit forgotten it's called profits of deceit techniques of the American agitator and it's by Leo Loenthal and Norbert Gutderman and it's a extremely astute ute detailed analysis of the techniques of anti-semitic [music] agitation and propaganda especially in the context of the United States.”
Where to get it
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Taking America Back
Taking America Back by David Austin Walsh is a historical examination documenting how the political right in the United States has historically attempted, often half-heartedly, to police and confront anti-Semitism within its own ranks.
Recommended“One is Taking America Back by David Austin Walsh, which is a kind of history of uh the rights half-hearted, let's say, attempts to police anti-semitism.”
Where to get it
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The Politics of Cultural Despair
The Politics of Cultural Despair by Fritz R.
Recommended“and the third book I would recommend is the politics of cultural despair by Fritz Stern where he talks about the kinds of people in Germany who prior in the 19th century kind of created the ideological underpinnings for what became Nazism and it's a wonderful book”
Where to get it
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What Hath God Wrought
What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe is a comprehensive Pulitzer Prize-winning history that chronicles the transformation of the United States from 1815 to 1848, covering the crucial era of Jacksonian democracy.
Recommended“ah okay so my first book I would was is kind of big and long but it's one of my favorite books about American history is called what hath God wrought the transformation of America 1815 to 1848 history of America and like the Jacksonian times it's a wonderful history”
Where to get it