Trump Is Building a Bridge to 1896

For at least two decades now, social critics and commentators have been proclaiming that America is in a second Gilded Age. Like the similar fascism debate, the invocation of the late 19th century’s summit of freebooting capitalism to characterize our own age of rampaging inequality obscures as much as it illuminates. Yet, here on the cusp of Donald Trump’s second administration, at least one Gilded Age analogue is warranted: the presidency of William McKinley, which neatly distilled the outlook of the American ruling class in its self-assured prime.



Source link