America First! is a rarity among political books: first published in 1995, it remains more timely, relevant, and even urgent than ever.
Lively and iconoclastic, it explores the rich heritage, the turbulent present, and the possible future of the political and cultural tendency known as "America First." Bill Kauffman, a columnist for the American Conservative, examines the nineteenth-century underpinnings and twentieth-century eruptions of American isolationism and nationalism, which are the fault lines along which the politics of the twenty-first century are cleaving.
In a new preface and epilogue written especially for this reissue, he traces the evolution of America First sentiment over the past twenty years: from its near-eclipse in the war hysteria of the George W. Bush administration to its revival in 2016 with the populist campaigns of Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders.
PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF AMERICA FIRST!
“Enjoyable and fascinating…dazzling…If you read only one political history book this year, here it is.” ― Booklist
“Novel and important…often perceptive and nearly always provocative.” ―World Policy Journal
“Kauffman and I are the original patriots… Kauffman is a romantic reactionary, a writer with an odd, energetic optimism.” —Gore Vidal
“Kauffman is an engaging and often amusing writer.” —Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Washington Monthly
