Grand Old Unraveling

“Grand Old Unraveling is a powerful warning of the dangers presented by Trumpist conspiracy-mongering and contempt for democratic norms. John Kenneth White contends that Trumpism has been germinating within the GOP for decades, and that Donald Trump is a ‘symptom, not a cause of our present-day dilemma.’ It is, in White’s retelling, ‘the culture within the Republican Party’ that made Trump possible. This book should be required reading for all Americans concerned about the fate of the republic in 2024 and beyond.”—Stephen F. Knott, author of The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal

“Discussions of the rise of authoritarianism in the contemporary Republican Party are ubiquitous, but how did we get here? This careful historical account fills in the missing pieces to explain the development of the contemporary Republican Party’s penchant towards conspiratorial and anti-Democratic sentiments over the course of nearly a century.”—Rachel M. Blum, author of How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics

“In Grand Old Unraveling, John Kenneth White takes on a substantial undertaking: explaining how the Republican Party got to where it is today. Of course he dissects Donald Trump’s singular influence over the party during the past decade, but he also shows how the party has shifted its positions—on race, economics, the role of government, conspiratorial thinking, and more—over a vast and detailed swath of US history. White effectively demonstrates how the Republican Party became a place that Trump would view as home long before he thought about running for office.”—Seth Masket, author of Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016–2020