David Austin Walsh

@davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social

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Historian. Postdoc @Yale Center for Study of Antisemitism. Book: TAKING AMERICA BACK: THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND THE FAR RIGHT // Yale Press // Spring 2024

Posts Replies Media

Happy to see my book on display at #oah24!

Reply to

Ed Burmila

Damn right.

I'm having a book launch event! April 9 at Yale (4:00pm), featuring Hasia Diner, Lila Corwin Berman, and Joe Fronczak. It's free and open to the public, so if you're in the area please come! (There will also be free booze after.)

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

Available now from Yale Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300260977/taking-america-back/

Taking America Backyalebooks.yale.edu A provocative look at the relationship between the far right and the American conservative movement from the 1930s to the end of the Cold War Since 2016, ...

Reply to

Jamie Gump, testing the acceptable limits of hubris

I don't even think I'd take that action.

What's the over/under on Haley eventually endorsing Trump?

I’m heartbroken.

Reply to

David

Well Biden is *probably* fucked in Michigan because of circumstances entirely of his own making. As for the election results since 2018… I mean, Trump nearly did win re-election in 2020!

Reply to

Jonathan Rolfe

A focus on the failures of liberalism? Sure. This is the main thru line for the postliberals!

I mean, obviously there’s a selection bias at work here but I do think that this sense is based on more than just vibes!

Seems like there’s a pretty strong consensus among right-wing studies folks that Donald Trump will win the 2024 election, possibly with an outright win.

I think at least three things are happening here: one, we’re reading the polls. Biden is a weak candidate dogged by the age issue and that’s a huge problem.

Two, we’re paying increasing attention as a field to right-wing radicalization among young people, especially young men, and the ways in which the far right is trying to make inroads to traditionally Democratic constituencies (ranging from African Americans to American Jews).

Three, most right-wing studies folks are very firmly on the left and—although this isn’t always the specific focus of our work—understand the right’s power as a symptom of the contradictions and failures of liberalism

I don’t think this makes us clairvoyant as scholars, let alone as pundits, but I think these perspectives do provide a more cohesive view of our current political crisis than mainstream liberalism, which seems to me to be in deep denial about the depths of the crisis.

I haven't seen the Shane Gillis SNL yet, but I do think it's another sign that -- post-Bud Light -- corporate liberalism is beginning to trend rightward again in order to cater to an increasingly influential market of right-wing Gen. Z men.

And to be clear, this is not happening because of attacks by conservatives on "woke capitalism" but rather because there's money to be made.

Stuff like this is exactly why the term "reactionary centrism" still has value. www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/a...

The Fight Over Academic Freedomwww.nytimes.com Amid spiraling campus speech debates, many professors are rallying in defense of a bedrock principle. But can they agree on just what it means?

Reply to

Stephen Leahy

Not sure -- will check!

Reposted by

David Austin Walsh

I had the pleasure of serving on David's dissertation committee. It's a terrific project that debunks the old conventional wisdom that "responsible" conservatism rejected the far-right fringe in the 1960s. A must-read on modern conservatism, especially with the far right resurgent now.

My book, TAKING AMERICA BACK: THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND THE FAR RIGHT, is now available for pre-order. Pub. date is April 16! www.amazon.com/Taking-Ameri...

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Thanks, Kevin!

My book, TAKING AMERICA BACK: THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND THE FAR RIGHT, is now available for pre-order. Pub. date is April 16! www.amazon.com/Taking-Ameri...

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Reposted by

David Austin Walsh

Please read this piece, that my watching this event was not for naught https://forward.com/opinion/576962/elon-musk-ben-shapiro-auschwitz-visit-remembrance/

Liberal Zionism in America is in *deep* denial about what Zionism is. This is not a new insight, but it has been exponentially amplified in light of the Gaza war.

Reply to

paul johnson

Wait I did? Haven’t listen to the latest episode yet

The problem with Bluesky is that it doesn’t provoke the same existential crises by engaging with the platform as Twitter.

Reply to

wesinjapan

Ah, that's a part of NE I know very little about. I guess my best advice is that Italian food in NE is generally quite solid? Also all of the seafood. And for the love of God do not say anything negative about the Patriots.

Whereabouts?

Unfortunately the only beer I have in the apartment is Coors, which I only bought because I like using the stubby bottles as candleholders. But a beer is a beer.