There has long been a curious sub-genre in liberal journalism. It can best be described as “examining working class Americans in their natural habitat.” It goes something like this. Journalists from New York or California will bravely venture into a red state, observe the local inhabitants from afar, and come back with a series of superficial insights that reinforce the existing prejudices of coastal elites. 

Partly as a result of this lack of journalistic curiosity, liberal America is no closer to truly understanding the underlying forces that swept Donald Trump into the White House, and may yet do so again.

Batya Ungar-Sargon did something novel. She wanted to understand the American working class, so she actually spoke to them, all over the country, for over a year. Lessons learnt were captured in ‘Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women.’ It is the best book to read if you want to understand the political and cultural forces at play in America in 2024.

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