LK Field Notes Launch

Summer Recap and Book News

Hello!

It has been a truly strange and disturbing year in America, and I have had a front-row seat from my home in Washington, DC.

When Trump and Vance won the election, I knew that this second administration would be dramatically different from the first (I wrote about that here), but even as someone who was worried from the start, I am constantly surprised by the extent of the shift. While I was busy finishing up my book about the “MAGA New Right,” the new administration was moving so speedily to smash up and dismantle core American institutions that it was hard to keep up. Now that the book is in production, I plan to use this Newsletter as a place to write about everything that is going on, and to give updates about the book’s release and my other work and writing. So welcome! Please spread the word, and if you want to support my writing here and elsewhere consider a paid subscription.

Here are some other quick notes about what I have been up to this year:

I finished edits, copyedits, and proofing of my book in April. I’m excited to see it in the world soon — you can preorder it here for the November 4 release! — and recently got some great news: Furious Minds got a starred review and a really nice write-up from Publisher’s Weekly. They called it a “formidable debut intellectual history of Trumpism’s “brain trust”” and “a meticulous and unsettling revelation of a right-wing plan for a “new old-fashioned world.””

Here’s the PUP banner and cover:

In addition to working on the book, since January I have been working part-time with GW’s Illiberalism Studies Program, which is directed by Marlene Laruelle. I have been commissioning and editing short pieces for the Frontiers of American Reaction site. (If you are a writer or scholar and have a pitch for something we might be interested in, reach out at illibstudies@gwu.edu). We also publish book reviews, like this one that I wrote about Alexandre Lefebvre’s great book Liberalism As a Way of Life. I’m also working on a podcast for ILLSP called Ideology Unbound; Alex was my first guest and I’ll announce it here when that drops.

Over the summer, I wrote about the conservative legal movement for Verfassungsblog, a blog about liberal constitutionalism based in Berlin, and then again for Le Monde (woohoo!). A friend in France sent me the print version (see below). The English version was republished at ILLSP.

At the end of July, I went to the Age of Reagan conference in Simi Valley, California, where I met lots of great people. It was only my second time visiting the state. Reagan feels like a specter of the past to me, but I met some Trump supporters there who suggested there was real continuity between the two men. Either way, what a gorgeous place.

Right after I got back from California, I took off with my husband and kids and we spent most of August in the fresh air and wilderness of West Virginia. I grew up spending a lot of time in the Canadian Rockies and am an insufferable mountain snob, but even I can concede that the Mountain State is a truly special place. We did lots of hiking.

Then, in the middle of that trip, I came back to (now federally-occupied) DC for the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference put on by Shikha Dalmia and the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. It was a pleasure to be on a panel with Zack Beauchamp, Damon Linker, and Tom Palmer. I also got to record a podcast with Zack for Vox’s Gray Area (normally hosted by Sean Illing, transcript here). I highly recommend the speeches by Shikha and the Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.

I was thrilled to get to meet Suketu Mehta at the conference, whose 2006 book about Bombay/Mumbai, Maximum City, is SO tremendous, and whose speech on the first night of the conference I loved. Suketu is apparently working on a book about New York. I can’t wait.

Then I went back to West Virginia and did more hiking. That’s where I found out about the Publisher’s Weekly review. Such a great way to end the summer. Now I’m hunkering down for a busy fall.

Please do watch Kara-Murza’s talk. It’s a powerful reminder that, even under Putin, people can and do choose to live as free people. As Kara-Murza said, “they are free people in an unfree country.” Trump and Vance are trying to take away our freedoms, and they are succeeding in many arenas. But for most of us here in the US — in contrast to Kara-Murza — it does not take much courage (yet) to live freely. We have to fight to keep it that way.

~ LKF