Timothy J. Lombardo, “Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Populist Politics” (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

President Donald Trump is not sui generis. Populist impulses and political actors have been pulsating in the American soul since the nation’s founding. Timothy J.  Lombardo’s excellent book, Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Populist Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) recounts one such example. Starting in the mid-1960s, Rizzo dominated Philadelphia’s political landscape for a generation. His brand of bare-knuckled “law and order” conservatism augured the coming Reagan revolution. Lombardo recounts the roots Rizzo’s rise and blue-collar conservatism that he embodied that remains a powerful political force.

Jeff Bloodworth is an associate professor of history at Gannon University. 

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