Justin Gest: The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality

Date: 

Friday, October 21, 2016, 4:15pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Center for European Studies (CES) 27 Kirkland Street, Hoffman Room

Seminar on Exclusion and Inclusion in Europe presentation by Justin Gest, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and International Affairs


Once at the middle of British and American societies, today white working class people have drifted to the margins and are transforming their countries’ politics. How did this happen? And what could possibly lead a group with such enduring numerical power to, in many instances, consider themselves a “minority” in the countries they once defined? In The New Minority, Justin Gest reports findings from original surveys and full-immersion fieldwork among the white working class people of once thriving industrial cities to draw impactful conclusions about their political behavior. In this daring and compelling book, he makes the case that tension between the vestiges of white working class power and its perceived loss have produced the unique phenomenon of their radicalization.