Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s

A bold new history of modern conservatism, tracing the origins of today’s MAGA firebrands to the populist right-wing politics of the 1990s.

“Lively and clarifying.” —The New York Times

Ronald Reagan has long been lionized for building a conservative coalition sustained by an optimistic vision of American exceptionalism, small government, and free markets. But as historian Nicole Hemmer reveals, the Reagan coalition fell apart as soon as its charismatic leader left office. In the 1990s, changing demographics and the emergence of a new political-entertainment media fueled the rise of combative far-right politicians and pundits. These partisans, from Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich to Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, forged a new American right that emphasized anti-globalism, appeals to white resentment, and skepticism about democracy itself, inaugurating a new era of polarized politics.

Now updated with an afterword discussing Donald Trump’s decade-plus grip on the American right, Partisans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the crisis of American politics today.