The Academic Trumpists

"""It is not news that the American right-wing, particularly in the past decade, attacks universities for being hotbeds of ‘woke’ ideology and accuses professors of indoctrinating students, even as many state governments are putting restrictions on academic freedom and cutting university budgets. And there isn’t much dispute that, on average, college professors are more liberal than other adults in their generation and class brackets. So how do we explain the very vocal support given to the candidacy and then administration of Donald Trump? David Swartz has put together an interesting dataset of academic who are public Trump supporters and explores this question. In the process, he also finds a committed group of academic conservatives who firmly did not support Trump. How these two groups differ, in the justifications they use and the professional networks they use, provides a fascinating study of the current American academy. While the sociological study of conservative Americans has been flourishing, one particular group is drastically understudies – college professors. Perhaps because they have a public reputation for being progressive, but understanding conservative academics is overdue. David Swartz has put together a fascinating study of conservative professors and public intellectuals – in particular comparing those who supported Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency with those who did not. The differences in ideologies between the two groups, and the subtle differences in professional networks and career paths, is required reading for those who study the professions, the academy, or the American right. Using a Bourdieusian theoretical framework that examines the interplay between ideological commitments and social and professional location, David Swartz examines the ideas, the networks, and the career paths of two groups of American academics – those that supported Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency, and those equally conservative professors who did not support Trump. The differences are fascinating and have much to tell us about the American academy, professions in general, and contemporary American conservatism."" Rhys H. Williams, Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Chicago, Visiting Scholar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Past-president, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and Past-president, Association for the Sociology of Religion. ""This book explores the irony of scholars who explicitly reject the culture of careful and critical discourse on which universities are expected to be built. No scholars have compared academic Trumpists to conservative academics who are anti-Trumpists. The Bourdieusian field perspective provides a valuable and illuminating theoretical framework. I have no doubt that this will be an important and timely work. "" Steven Brint, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, University of California, Riverside. ""Understanding the conservative politics of Trumpism with respect to higher education is of paramount concern in all democratic countries in the world. David Swartz recasts the discussion of public intellectuals in a seminal and important way, which I believe will have a long shelf-life in discussions of the new public intellectual. This is a great, timely, and important topic, and Swartz utilizes an excellent methodology in its pursuit. Anyone interested in public intellectuals in America should read this book."" Jeffrey R. Di Leo, author of Dark Academe: Capitalism, Theory, and the Death Drive in Higher Education and co-editor of The New Public Intellectual. ""With keen insight, David Swartz analytically dissects and sheds light on the small but influential cadre of right-wing academics he calls Trumpists. Unmoored by the advances made by a liberal, pluralist democracy, they are part of a reactionary backlash movement that is motivated by what Theodor Adorno once described as a “feeling of social catastrophe” that encourages a wrecking ball approach to politics. Swartz illustrates in fine detail how this feeling is sustained and promoted by a network of academic centers, institutes, and think-tanks. This political network amplifies the Trumpists resentments, only adding fuel to the fire. This is a bracing but essential book for anyone seeking to understand the dark political time we live in."" Peter Kivisto, Richard A. Swanson Professor of Social Thought, Augustana College"