The People, No

A “brilliantly written, eye-opening” look at how elites distort the meaning of populism by the bestselling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? (The Washington Post).

Rarely does a work of history contain startling implications for the present, but in The People, No, New York Times-bestselling author Thomas Frank pulls off that explosive effect by showing us that everything we think we know about populism is wrong. Today “populism” is seen as a frightening thing, a term pundits use to describe the racist philosophy of Donald Trump and European extremists. But this is a mistake.

The real story of populism is an account of enlightenment and liberation; it is the story of American democracy itself, of its ever-widening promise of a decent life for all. Taking us from the tumultuous 1890s, when the radical left-wing Populist Party—the biggest mass movement in American history—fought Gilded Age plutocrats to the reformers’ great triumphs under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, Frank reminds us how much we owe to the populist ethos. Frank also shows that elitist groups have reliably detested populism, lashing out at working-class concerns. The anti-populist vituperations by the Washington centrists of today are only the latest expression.

Frank pummels the elites, revisits the movement’s provocative politics, and declares true populism to be the language of promise and optimism. This is a ringing affirmation of a movement that, Frank shows us, is not the problem of our times, but the solution for what ails us.

“Frank describes an indigenous radical tradition that descends from Jefferson and Paine and stretches forward to Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. . . . Compelling.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“Tom Frank does what few writers today are capable of doing―he criticizes his own side.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“Readers come away knowing that at its heart, populism means just one thing: This land was made for you and me.” ―The Washington Post