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Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America Kindle Edition

by John Sides (Author, Afterword), Michael Tesler (Author, Afterword), Lynn Vavreck (Author, Afterword) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 159 ratings

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A gripping in-depth look at the presidential election that stunned the world

Donald Trump's election victory resulted in one of the most unexpected presidencies in history. Identity Crisis provides the definitive account of the campaign that seemed to break all the political rules—but in fact didn't. Featuring a new afterword by the authors that discusses the 2018 midterms and today's emerging political trends, this compelling book describes how Trump's victory was foreshadowed by changes in the Democratic and Republican coalitions that were driven by people's racial and ethnic identities, and how the Trump campaign exacerbated these divisions by hammering away on race, immigration, and religion. The result was an epic battle not just for the White House but about what America should be.

Print length

502 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

August 13, 2019
File size

12471 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Winner of the 2019 Richard E. Neustadt Award, Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association"

""The Most Ominous Book I Read in 2018" (Carlos Lozado, Washington Post)"

"One of Vox's 9 Thinkers Who Made Sense of 2018's Chaos"

"There is little if any support in voting data for the notion that ‘economic anxiety’ drove people to vote for Trump. As documented in Identity Crisis, an important new book analyzing the 2016 election, what distinguished Trump voters wasn’t financial hardship but ‘attitudes related to race and ethnicity.’"---Paul Krugman, New York Times

"I think it is, without doubt, the most important, most illuminating book written on the 2016 election. And in doing that I think it’s one of the most important books for understanding American politics today. . . . There are so many findings in the book that if you really absorb them they can rock your understanding of politics."---Ezra Klein, Vox

"A vital new work on the political culture of the Trump era."---Carlos Lozada, Washington Post

"One of the most influential books on the 2016 election."---Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times

"The importance of the backlash around race and immigration inside the GOP is a central theme of a timely, careful and data-rich new book on the 2016 election by political scientists John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck. In Identity Crisis, they argue that Trump understood what was happening inside the party in a way his rivals did not."---E.J. Dionne, Washington Post

"Other academics may also be skeptical of Cyberwar. A forthcoming book on the 2016 campaign, Identity Crisis, by the political scientists John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, argues that Russian interference was not a major factor in the Presidential election, and that the hacked e-mails ‘did not clearly affect’ perceptions of Clinton. Instead, they write, Trump’s exploitation of divisive race, gender, religious, and ethnicity issues accounted for his win."---Jane Mayer, New Yorker

"Under their microscope, the white ‘economic anxiety’ excuse for voting Trump morphs into something completely different, identified by the authors as ‘racialized economics,’ which they define as ‘the belief that undeserving groups are getting ahead while your group is left behind.’"---Charles Jaco, St. Louis American

"With the luxury of hindsight and analytical acumen, political scientists John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck have produced an exceptionally well-researched and insightful postmortem that soberly isolates the election’s core significance: a polarizing debate over American identity spurred by immigration and demographic change. The result, Identity Crisis, is a definitive, statistically informed account of the 2016 presidential election."---Justin Gest, American Prospect

"This book is going to remain the definitive explanation of what motivated and differentiated voters from one another in both primary campaigns and the general election in 2016."---Ian Reifowitz, Daily Kos

"[The authors] counter some popular assumptions about the surprising outcome of the 2016 presidential election, which pitted two ‘historically unpopular presidential candidates’ against each other. . . . The authors cite three main reasons for Trump's victory: ‘fractured ranks’ within the Republican Party that impeded party leaders from coalescing behind any candidate; outsized media coverage of Trump that made him appear to be the front-runner even when coverage focused on scandals; and ‘racialized economics,’ in which racial attitudes ‘shaped the way voters understood economic outcomes.’ . . . A cogent, well-documented analysis of the 2016 election." ― Kirkus

"Identity Crisis, a 2018 book by leading political scientists John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, is the best guide to understanding why these demographic divisions are so stark and getting starker. The book is framed as a postmortem of the 2016 presidential election, but is in fact a sweeping account of the big picture in American politics over the past several decades."---Zack Beauchamp, Vox

"The definitive account of the 2016 election."---Alex Shephard, New Republic

"The most thorough social science analysis of the 2016 election."---Ilya Somin, Reason

"This is the best, most dispassionate analysis of 2016 that I have seen."---George Hawley, Law & Liberty

"Identity Crisis offers a strong and somewhat counter-intuitive thesis about the 2016 presidential election." ― Survival

"After having spent years attempting to understand political and security dynamics in other countries beset by division, I, like many other Americans, am struggling to understand what’s happening in my own country. Identity Crisis provides a data-driven key for decoding the 2016 election, whose outcome was influenced more heavily than recent ones by racial and ethnic identity. The implications, although informative, are not comforting."---Stephen Tankel, War on the Rocks --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

John Sides is professor of political science at George Washington University. Michael Tesler is associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Post-Racial or Most-Racial?: Race and Politics in the Obama Era. Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author, with John Sides, of The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (Princeton). --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Review

“Lucid, engaging, and ruthlessly rational, Identity Crisis is the guide we needed to what really happened in 2016, an election we still haven’t come to terms with. After all the speculation and partisan blame, the authors’ search for the real answers isn’t just interesting―it’s necessary. Identity Crisis is about more than an election: it’s about the state of America at a moment of political breakdown.”―Molly Ball, national political correspondent, Time

“Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck offer context and a sense of proportion at a time of rapid change, misinformation, and uncertainty, helping us to untangle familiar patterns from what is genuinely new. Thoughtful, patient, and timely, Identity Crisis is an antidote to the hot takes of our political era.”―John F. Dickerson, author of Whistlestop and On Her Trail

“Donald Trump’s victory stunned most political observers and set off a debate that’s still raging about its causes and meaning. John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck supply a vital missing element: the data undergirding their penetrating and accessible analysis of the most shocking presidential outcome in modern history. Identity Crisis is the Rosetta stone for understanding what really happened in the 2016 election.”―Joshua Green, author of Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency

“Identity Crisis presents the most thorough, nuanced, and astute analysis of the 2016 presidential election I have seen. It makes a powerful case that identity politics rather than economic distress was the driving force behind Trump’s victory, and in doing so offers deep insight into the current state of American politics. A must-read for anyone trying to understand how we got to this singular moment.”―Gary C. Jacobson, coauthor of The Logic of American Politics

“Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck provide the most thorough, in-depth, and exhaustive explanation for the 2016 presidential election yet written. Carefully examining a panoply of potential factors influencing both the primaries and the general election, they sort the wheat from the chaff, examining both the myths and reality of Donald Trump’s ultimate rise.”―Diana C. Mutz, author of In-Your-Face Politics: The Consequences of Uncivil Media --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07V3TRRX8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; 2nd edition (August 13, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 13, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 12471 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 502 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #404,699 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #136 in Campaigns & Elections
- #168 in Democracy (Kindle Store)
- #376 in Civics & Citizenship (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 159 ratings

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About the authors

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John Sides
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John Sides is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He studies political behavior in American and comparative politics.
He is an author of 4 books: The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy, Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and The Battle for the Meaning of America, The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Election, and Campaigns and Election: Rules, Reality, Strategy, Choice.
He has published articles in various scholarly journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics.
He helped found at The Monkey Cage, a site about political science and politics at the Washington Post. He has also written for such outlets as FiveThirtyEight, the Boston Review, Bloomberg View, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times.
He currently serves as Research Director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.
He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Lynn Vavreck
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Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA and a Professor of Political Science and Communication. Her books include Identity Crisis: The Battle for the Meaning of America, The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election, and The Message Matters: The Economy and Presidential Campaigns, among others. She is a recipient of the Andrew F. Carnegie Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences and a contributor to The Upshot at The New York Times.
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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

159 global ratings

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Aaron

Insightful, objective, and well-researched.

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Though this book discusses the 2016 election, I decided to re-read it considering the state of politics after the 2018 and 2020 elections. The newly-added "Afterword" does a nice job of connecting the 2016 election to the 2018 midterms. The authors do a great job discussing the demographic shifts/alignments with the Republican and Democratic parties that led to (a) 2016's divisive political environment (b) the worsening polarization of the American electorate. This book is extremely well-written, straightforward, and data-driven. For each argument presented, the authors have substantial research data to bolster their claims. "Identity Crisis" is a great read for anyone who wants an impartial, data-driven analysis of the "how" and "why" of the 2016 election.

4 people found this helpful

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Jacklin

Good

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

It was in a good condition, a little bit dirty than I thought but I’m only using it for school so I don’t care that much.

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Scott Seeley

Great book - good narrative, well supported with evidence

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

I read this for a grad school class. I think the authors present a great view point here. The only issue I have with it is the font is incredibly small in the book. I'm an avid reader, I don't recall a book with font this small.

But it starts terrific, ends terrific, and has a really good flow throughout. I'm actually going to give this to students of mine to show how to clearly write a thesis

3 people found this helpful

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Steven F. Elliott

Excellent overview of recent elections

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

An excellent book, loads of information and excellent breakdown and analysis. This would have been a five star review but I think they could have designed their visual and written information better to be more impactful. The book was so well done in substance, that I would hold it to an almost perfect bar for communication strategy.

2 people found this helpful

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@DrCarlHoffman

Potential Family Therapy

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book confirmed many things I perceived during the election. I bought and read the book because I wanted an objective and non-insulting explanation of the thinking of a Trump supporter. The past election divided my extended family, and this book explained their thinking for me. The task before me is restoring torn relationships. This book may prove to be helpful.

8 people found this helpful

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Hannah Elizabeth

College level read

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2020

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Packed full of data and analysis so it seems factual and unbiased. Not an easy read though. We used it in my college class.

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Reading the book is like attending an advanced university class...dry but well documented and insightful. I highly recommend reading it especially if you are locked down anyway due to Covid-19. I think it tells us about what to what for in the upcoming elections as well.

3 people found this helpful

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AJ

A spellbinding read

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Excellent book about before, during and after the 2016 election. By presenting an amazing array of facts in words, graphs and tables the authors have done the heavy lifting for us. They show that much of what one has heard or read in the newspapers is not the whole story. I found this read spellbinding.

7 people found this helpful

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