Tracing the Prehistory of Trumpism |
Listen to this article:
John Ganz’s When the Clock Broke is a vivid, entertaining chronicle of the early 1990s as the cultural and affective prehistory of Trumpism. With novelistic flair, Ganz reconstructs a decade of disillusionment: the post-Cold War triumph soured by recession, racial tensions, and a parade of charismatic grotesques – David Duke, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, Rudy Giuliani, even John Gotti. Trump, lurking in the wings, absorbs the lessons of strongman spectacle in a crumbling New York. The book is wry, morally urgent, and dedicates itself to warning against fascism’s “structure of feeling.” It is essential reading for understanding the emotional syntax of today’s far right.
Yet, from the perspective of elite theory and historical materialism, Ganz’s account raises a critical question: does he root Trumpism in systemic and structural forces, or largely in individuals and contingent chance? The answer is mixed – but leans toward the latter. Ganz excels at conjunctural narrative, but his focus on colourful personalities, media events, and subcultural currents risks portraying the 1990s rupture as a series of accidental eruptions rather than the predictable outcome of deeper racial-capitalist-imperial contradictions.
‘When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s’, John Ganz, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.
The Strengths: Conjunctural Brilliance and Affective Insight
Ganz’s greatest achievement is capturing the mood of the early 1990s. The Cold War’s end promised a “kinder, gentler America,” yet delivered junk-bond crashes, savings-and-loan scandals, urban riots, and a white middle class feeling culturally besieged and economically betrayed. Into this vacuum stepped con-men promising protection: the “godfather, the boss.” Ganz’s vignettes are masterful – Duke’s talk-show antics, Buchanan’s “culture war” speech, Perot’s........