Populism and Populist Discourse in North America

This bookexaminesthe origins of populism in Canadaand the United States and its development into a powerful andat timesdisturbingpolitical force.Focus isonfive historical periods: The Populist Party of theUnited States in the 1890s, Prairie Populism in Canada during the early and mid-20th century, theReform Party of Canada in the 1980s and 90s, the 'left' and 'right' populism of Bernie Sandersand Donald Trump in the early 21st century, and the phenomenon of Ford Nation in modernday Ontario, Canada. The authorextendsErnesto Laclau's analysis of populism as a 'logic' inOnPopulist Reason (2005) to explore how a 'people' come into being in theirconflict or clash with an 'elite,' defined by Chartists in the 19th century as "idlers,"providinga contrast between 'producers' and 'non-producers.'The authorexaminesthelinguistic media (speeches, books, radio,twitter, Facebook) usedin populist discourseto convey a political messageandto articulate the needs, wishes and will of a newly born 'people' in their numerous guises andexpressions, from "the plain people," to "the little guy," or to "brothers and sisters."This volume will be of interest to researchers in an interdisciplinary range of fields, including discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, pragmatics, rhetoric and stylistics, political communication, social movements theory, media studies, and Canadian and American history.