When the Clock Broke Con Men Conspiracists and the Origins of Trumpism

<p><b>THE <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • A BARACK OBAMA SUMMER PICK</b><br><br><b>A rollicking, revelatory look at the tumult of the early 1990s and the rise of a new, more berserk America that birthed the Donald Trump Era</b><br><br><b>‘<i>When the Clock Broke</i> is leagues more insightful on the subject of Trump’s ascent than most writing that purports to address the issue directly’ <i>Washington Post</i></b><br><br><b>‘Terrific . . . Vibrant . . . <i>When the Clock Broke</i> is one of those rarest of books: unflaggingly entertaining while never losing sight of its moral core’ <i>New York Times</i></b><br><br>With the Soviet Union extinct, Saddam Hussein defeated and US power at its zenith, the early 1990s promised a ‘kinder, gentler America’. It didn’t work out that way. Instead, it was a period of punishing economic hardship, rising anger and domestic strife, setting the tone for the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today.<br><br>In this original and often hilarious book, John Ganz narrates the fall of the Reagan order and the rise of a new kind of paranoid politics – how a group of con men, conspiracists and racists declared a culture war on liberal elites, rejected ‘globalism’ and called for a ‘populist-based presidency’ – that birthed Donald Trump’s America.<br><br>A rollicking exposé of the end of the post–World War II order – this book shows the advent of a new, more berserk America.<br><br><b>One of the <i>Washington Post</i>’s 10 Best Books of 2024</b><br><b>One of the <i>New York Times</i>’ 100 Notable Books of 2024<br>Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award 2024</b></p>