“Riveting...” -Jill Lepore, The New Yorker
“Perhaps the best book ever on how Democrats lost the white working class. The Hardhat Riot is a great read, but also a must-read to understand the voters that Democrats neglected at their own peril.”—James Carville,former Chief Strategist for President Bill Clinton
“Hardhat Riot captures a seminal but long-neglected turning point in the steady erosion of Democratic support among the core of the New Deal Coalition.... crucial for anyone seeking to understand the politics of 2020 and beyond.” —Thomas B. Edsall,The New York Times
“This is red-meat history with a hot splash of tabasco. David Paul Kuhn brings to life a period that is not only fascinating in itself but also illuminates the age of Donald Trump ... a truly captivating read.” —ROBERT GUEST,
The Economist
“Over the past 15 years few writers have covered this realignment with the consistency of David Paul Kuhn, whose warnings about the reasons white working people were moving away from the Democrats were largely dismissed by the news media and party elites ... Mr. Kuhn remained an unacknowledged prophet. ... Now he has synthesized his message with a lesson from history: The Hardhat Riot, a riveting account of ... [a] clash on the streets of New York [that] came to symbolize the irreconcilable division taking shape in the rest of the country. ... Mr. Kuhn avoids polemics and judgment, yet leads the reader to understand the deeper questions implicit in so many of today’s political debates. ... The Hardhat Riot insightfully explains why and how this happened. Perhaps the Democratic Party’s leaders will finally understand what David Paul Kuhn has been trying to tell them.” —Jim Webb,
The Wall Street Journal book review
“A gripping history of a moment when two visions of America clashed...”
—Beverly Gage,
Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University
“Kuhn makes use of masterful, disturbing imagery to capture the clash... his narration is candid... the perspectives of both sides are shared without favoritism... fascinating.”
—Foreword Reviews
“I picked up David Paul Kuhn’s The Hardhat Riot with the intention of skimming and found myself engrossed, reading every page. Well-written, painstakingly researched, this is an important book that gives life to history and explains the divorce between working-class whites and the Democratic Party, and yet rarer still, is also a real pleasure to read.” —Charlie Cook,
The Cook Political Report
“... Kuhn skillfully shows how the split between traditionally Democratic constituencies—blue collar workers and militant students—eerily foreshadows the bitter political splits of our time.” —Michael Barone,
Author of The Almanac of American Politics & American Enterprise Institute Emeritus Fellow
“... the most persuasive explanation for the rise of Donald Trump that has yet appeared.” —Ross K. Baker,
Professor of American Government, Rutgers University
“Hardhat Riot is an arresting and often chilling narrative of the events that drove a wedge between white working-class voters and the Democratic Party, setting America on the road to today’s right-wing populism. I couldn’t stop reading it.” —Willliam Galston,
Former policy advisor to President Clinton & Brookings Institution Senior Fellow
