Book cover of Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism

Book description

Authoritarian populist parties have advanced in many countries, and entered government in states as diverse as Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. Even small parties can still shift the policy agenda, as demonstrated by UKIP's role in catalyzing Brexit. Drawing on new evidence, this book advances a general theory…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Cultural Backlash as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cultural Backlash is aimed at sorting out the roots of the recent rise of what the authors call authoritarian populism, which is much the same thing as plutocratic populism.

They locate its origins in a backlash against the social consequences and policies that grew from socio-economic shifts that began in the 1960s and 1970s.

These include, obviously enough, the sexual revolution and changing gender norms, the civil rights movement and the increasingly multi-racial and multi-cultural character of modern societies, and the turn toward values that Inglehart, decades ago, termed post-materialist.

The book is distinguished by the vast amount of quantitative…

Since the rise of the likes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, and Jair Bolsonaro, there has been no shortage of research that has studied authoritarian populism. After Brexit, many studies argued that globalization-induced economic dislocations were leading to grievances, which political entrepreneurs tapped into. Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart make the argument in their book, Cultural Backlash, that these grievances are driven by a cultural backlash to post-materialist values of liberalism, pluralism, and tolerance. This book does a great job explaining how authoritarian populist voters want to feel part of a tribe that shares their identity and…

If you love Cultural Backlash...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Cultural Backlash?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Cultural Backlash.

Browse books like Cultural Backlash

Book cover of How Democracies Die
Book cover of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
Book cover of The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,395

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Cultural Backlash, you might also like...

Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…

Book cover of Tsunami

Tsunami by LeeAnn Pickrell,

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…

5 book lists we think you will like!