Trump And The Election Of 1876

Professors Gilbert and Giovacchini have written an Op-Ed for Janus in which they discuss the election of President Trump.

By Jim Gilbert and Saverio Giovacchini | Janus

Professors Jim Gilbert and Saverio Giovacchini have written an Op-Ed  for Janus. In their piece, they discuss the election of President Trump and how it relates to the history of the highly contested election of 1876 and the effects of the bargain between Democrats and Republicans. Janus is the undergraduate journal for history and the humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park. They seek to grant undergraduate students a voice in the academic world by providing them a chance to publish their work and to participate formally in scholarly debate.

"In many respects, the election of Donald Trump and the coming to power of his style of governance seems new and unprecedented, a fundamental shift in the American political traditions.  There are, of course, many causes for this tectonic transition, many of them relating to the last ten years or so of declining employment, growing inequality and the descent of the Republican Party into permanent partisanship.  As historians, however, we can’t help observing longer-term historical forces at play as well as the long reach of events from the past whose consequences still haunt American politics. While much of it is new, the roots of Trumpism run deep in American soil and in the fateful consequences of choices we did make."

Read the complete Op-Ed at Janus.

Image courtesy of Janus.