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Julian E. Zelizer
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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment Paperback – April 12, 2022

by Julian E. Zelizer (Editor)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings
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Leading historians provide perspective on Trump’s four turbulent years in the White House

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.

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  1. Print length
    488 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 12, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0691228949
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691228945
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“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

About the Author

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

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (April 12, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 488 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691228949
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691228945
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Julian E. Zelizer

    Julian E. Zelizer

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    Julian E. Zelizer is Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Zelizer, a CNN Political Analyst and NPR contributor, is the author and editor of 24 books on U.S. political history.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Kathleen Belew

    Kathleen Belew

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Kathleen Belew is an author, historian and teacher. Belew spent ten years researching and writing her first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (2018). In it, she explores how white power activists created a social movement through a common story about betrayal by the government, war, and its weapons, uniforms, and technologies.

    Belew has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, AC 360 with Anderson Cooper, Frontline, Fresh Air, and All Things Considered, among others. Her research featured prominently in documentaries such as Homegrown Hate: The War Among Us (ABC) and Documenting Hate: New American Nazis (Frontline).

    As Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, Belew’s award-winning teaching centers on the broad themes of history of the present, conservatism, race, gender, violence, and the meaning of war.

    Her next book, Home, at the End of the World, illuminates our era of apocalypse through a history focused on her native Colorado where, in the 1990s, high-profile kidnappings and murders, right-wing religious ideology, and a mass shooting exposed tears in America’s social fabric, and dramatically changed our relationship with place, violence, and politics (Random House).

    Belew (Ph.D. in American Studies, Yale University) has held postdoctoral fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, Northwestern University, and Rutgers University. She is co-editor of A Field Guide to White Supremacy (2021) and has contributed essays to The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (2022) and the New York Times bestseller Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends about Our Past (2023).

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
81 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Janet T.
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend. Explains a lot about the lead-up to a Trump presidency.
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book isn't just about trump, but has answered my question about what is going on in this country (and the GOP) to polarize us (American people) so much. You can blame the media and social media and some of what's happening in America is human nature, but so much of it is also being carefully crafted by "people handlers" (people who understand and utilize human nature) for personal and political gain.

It's time for individuals to wake up and say "I don't want to be used like that any more." by power hungry politicians. If we don't know what the problem is we can't begin to fix it.
24 people found this helpful
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Joe
1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was looking for
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024
Verified Purchase
Pretty strong liberal bias, I was looking for an independent or balanced objective views of the Trump presidency and what was transacted. Instead of focusing on the transactional nature of government, it's a mix of opinions about how terrible Trump was with general references. A fair amount of time is spent in 'his tie was blue' kind of writing, and a significant amount of time spent going into unnecessary details before the Trump presidency, which really should be outside the scope of the book by the title. Overall it's a good source for the social justice view against Trump and identifying groups within America that were upset by him. For instance, "farmers" are only mentioned twice - once for a general reference, and then for some reason indexed in back as the reference for the word 'farmers'. The Abraham accords are mentioned, but no details that I would include from my basic knowledge. Overall disappointing - venting with an academic tone, but really falls short on content.
2 people found this helpful
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Larry D
5.0 out of 5 stars Historians Doing What Historians Do
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2022
Verified Purchase
An accurately written historical review of the Trump Presidency. What irony abounds here-professionally researched writing that interprets history based on factual data and verifiable evidence about an administration cloaked in the opposite paradigm. It is a massive book. It chronicles the downward sociopathic spiral of an entire political party dragging our democracy along with it. Read it and weep, and maybe we can avoid the crash and burn.
16 people found this helpful
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Max Ridgway
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and disturbing
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2022
Verified Purchase
A scholarly and non-partisan examination of the most disturbing period in modern American history. A compelling read and highly recommended.
12 people found this helpful
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RHG
3.0 out of 5 stars A Largely Political Rendering of the Trump Presidency
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2022
Historically, it's been difficult to judge a president shortly after his presidency. Both Truman and Eisenhower, for example, were viewed as weak presidents as they left office, but today are viewed as two of the nation's best presidents. The book's editor, Julian E. Zelizer, acknowledges the risk of premature judgments -- but also observes that historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. has commented that contemporary history is more vital than ever because "the 'present' becomes the 'past' more swiftly than ever before."

The book relies on eighteen historians to analyze Donald Trump's presidency. Unfortunately, partisan politics is a running theme throughout many chapters starting with "Reckoning with the Trumpian GOP", through the second to last chapter, "The Path of Most Resistance: How Democrats Battled Trump and Moved Left."

A major weakness of the book is that there is almost no discussion of economic issues although they played a major role in the Trump presidency from the 2017 tax cuts to the huge increase in the national debt to historically-low unemployment and large increases in Black employment and income.

I found the chapter "The 60/40 Problem: Trump, Culpability and COVID-19" the most quantitative and objective. The chapter starts with the question "If you had to apportion culpability, how much would you lay at the feet of Trump and how much at the larger social forces in which he operated?" I feel the chapter's author handled the question fairly and objectively.

So, with caveats, I recommend the book as an early judgment of our 45th President. Donald Trump's presidency was so unprecedented it may not take historians decades to render a final judgment.
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Neil Bouvier
5.0 out of 5 stars Trump triumphs are mentioned, but the harsh truth of Trumpism dominates this bio
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2022
If you are a Trumpist, you'll hate and never finish this book. If you are honest with an interest in modern history, you'll find this, as I have, interesting, painful, and embarrassing.

This is the opposite of a Dinesh D'Nonesense biopic and you'll find yourself googling and chasing links that demonstrate how deluded our illiterati have become.
3 people found this helpful
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Joe P
1.0 out of 5 stars Barely a good word
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is the third book by the editor professing “A First Historical Assessment”. The editor compiled other books on Obama and Bush 43 (which I have not read). There are 19 essays by 18 individuals nearly all of whom are college professors. Except for one essay which is more or less neutral, all are anti Trump. It seems to me that of over 74 million Americans who voted for Trump the editor could have found one person who could write positively of the Trump presidency. This book is not a balanced account. Despite the fact that many of the criticisms of Trump are valid there are positive accomplishments which are completely ignored. Do not waste your time with this book.
18 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars History?
Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
The book read more like an attack than a history on Donald Trump. It didn’t read like a balanced and fair book. (Coming from a Canadian)
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