The best investigators illuminate what is right in front of us but unnoticed. Two new books—Dignity by Chris Arnade, and Alienated America by Tim Carney—shine a light on areas overlooked by other commentators baffled by the 2016 election results. Conventional explanations of Donald Trump's victory have focused on economic alienation and alleged xenophobia and racism. Arnade and Carney reveal important realities that those narratives miss completely.
Neither Arnade nor Carney wrote his book about the Trump phenomenon per se, but both elucidate what is happening in the lives and communities of people commonly described as "left behind" by the political media. Arnade, a self-described socialist who crisscrossed America documenting community life, depicts a population in the "back row" beset by frustrations that cannot be explained by racism or economic anxiety alone. Carney, commentary editor of the Washington Examiner, shows that fraying community ties offer a more compelling explanation for working-class decline than the commonly accepted economic arguments.
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