What do you think?
Rate this book
Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia and Populist Politics
The postwar United States has experienced many forms of populist politics, none more consequential than that of the blue-collar white ethnics who brought figures like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump to the White House. Blue-Collar Conservatism traces the rise of this little-understood, easily caricatured variant of populism by presenting a nuanced portrait of the supporters of Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo.
In 1971, Frank Rizzo became the first former police commissioner elected mayor of a major American city. Despite serving as a Democrat, Rizzo cultivated his base of support by calling for "law and order" and opposing programs like public housing, school busing, affirmative action, and other policies his supporters deemed unearned advantages for nonwhites. Out of this engagement with the interwoven politics of law enforcement, school desegregation, equal employment, and urban housing, Timothy J. Lombardo argues, blue-collar populism arose.
Based on extensive archival research, and with an emphasis on interrelated changes to urban space and blue-collar culture, Blue-Collar Conservatism challenges the familiar backlash narrative, instead contextualizing blue-collar politics within postwar urban and economic crises. Historian and Philadelphia-native Lombardo demonstrates how blue-collar whites did not immediately abandon welfare liberalism but instead selectively rejected liberal policies based on culturally defined ideas of privilege, disadvantage, identity, and entitlement. While grounding his analysis in the postwar era's familiar racial fissures, Lombardo also emphasizes class identity as an indispensable driver of blue-collar political engagement. Blue-Collar Conservatism ultimately shows how this combination of factors created one of the least understood but most significant political developments in recent American history.
In 1971, Frank Rizzo became the first former police commissioner elected mayor of a major American city. Despite serving as a Democrat, Rizzo cultivated his base of support by calling for "law and order" and opposing programs like public housing, school busing, affirmative action, and other policies his supporters deemed unearned advantages for nonwhites. Out of this engagement with the interwoven politics of law enforcement, school desegregation, equal employment, and urban housing, Timothy J. Lombardo argues, blue-collar populism arose.
Based on extensive archival research, and with an emphasis on interrelated changes to urban space and blue-collar culture, Blue-Collar Conservatism challenges the familiar backlash narrative, instead contextualizing blue-collar politics within postwar urban and economic crises. Historian and Philadelphia-native Lombardo demonstrates how blue-collar whites did not immediately abandon welfare liberalism but instead selectively rejected liberal policies based on culturally defined ideas of privilege, disadvantage, identity, and entitlement. While grounding his analysis in the postwar era's familiar racial fissures, Lombardo also emphasizes class identity as an indispensable driver of blue-collar political engagement. Blue-Collar Conservatism ultimately shows how this combination of factors created one of the least understood but most significant political developments in recent American history.
328 pages, Hardcover
Published November 2, 2018
10 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 5, 2023
The most compelling postmortem on the rise of Trump that I’ve read, and it only makes that connection in the epilogue. Having lived in Philly, many of the figures and events discussed are known and notorious, and Lombardo weaves decades of sociopolitical machinations into a legible narrative. However, he also successfully connects the Philadelphian minutiae to a greater trend in postwar urban white ethnic politics in the U.S. For that reason, this is a highly worthwhile read even if you have no connection to or interest in Philly (what’s wrong with yous??)
June 22, 2020
Recent news in Philadelphia brings to light the city's divisions. From the hordes of people "defending" Fishtown to the people standing in front of the Columbus state at Marconi Park to Martina White's election on issues like ending sanctuary cities to Tulsi Gabbard's outsized percentages in the Democratic primary in NE and S Philly to the still mostly-White trade unions, the Blue-Collar conservatism Lombardo discusses persists today. Today, this coalition is regularly overshadowed by the liberal reformer tendency once represented by Clark and Dilworth. Hence the Working Class Families Party taking one of the 2 non-Democratic seats usually won by Republicans. But overall, Philadelphia remains marked by the same divisions Lombardo points to.
That's why this book is essential to understanding why these divisions developed. The author explores how tight-knit blue-collar neighborhoods erected and maintained spatial barriers through infrastructure, public housing policy, etc to uphold de facto segregated spaces. In the context of the 1960s and 1970s, they opposed government intervention on behalf of the "undeserving" yet supported revitalization and development of their own communities, not unlike the many tea party members who supported Medicare but detested food stamps. He also points to strong identification with law enforcement as a factor. Incidents like the MOVE raids, the murder of Daniel Faulkner, the Osage Street unrest all represented a flaring up of racial tension around law enforcement. I was surprised to learn that Philadelphia actively undid many positive reform measures because of the Rizzocrat influence. The side effects of this became apparent recently with the fallout over George Floyd's killing. Lombardo highlights parallels between Trumpism and Rizzo-ism, although they're apparent throughout his book.
Perhaps Lombardo could have spent more time discussing the percolation of blue-collar conservatism within political parties or discussing how it still influences the local Democratic establishment. He kind of skipped over the 1990s, where local politics remained bifurcated along these lines. And his modern analysis is more about Trump than local happenings, which makes it weaker than the historical elements. This is a historical piece, after all, and that he does ably.
He explains well how blue-collar conservatism invokes law-and-order, neighborhood stability, and selective government intervention through a patina of racial neutrality. However, as he notes, this often devolves into dog-whistles, and in some cases overt racist appeals (Rizzo's "vote White" comment). A similar work that engaged with these themes is Working-Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. There, Kefalas' look at the Chicago Bungalow Belt touches on how barriers influenced life and politics in an ethnic enclave. It's no surprise that the areas Kefalas and Lombardo spend a lot of time discussing were still more favorable towards Trump than the rest of their respective cities. It also brings to mind the "outer-borough conservatism" Ross Douthat has talked about before. Trump himself reflects this ideology, prominent in parts of Long Island and Staten Island. The New York 2nd District GOP primary actually puts on display a contest over this kind of conservatism.
A key takeaway is that in right-wing populism, the lines between race, economics, and geography are blurred. This is crucial to understanding what's behind the right-populism prominent today. What made this book so good is that it wasn't a biography of Rizzo, but a bio of the city, an explanation of the conditions that enabled Rizzo's rise. Check out Philadelphia today, and you'll see the legacy of "Blue-Collar Conservatism" if you look in the right places.
That's why this book is essential to understanding why these divisions developed. The author explores how tight-knit blue-collar neighborhoods erected and maintained spatial barriers through infrastructure, public housing policy, etc to uphold de facto segregated spaces. In the context of the 1960s and 1970s, they opposed government intervention on behalf of the "undeserving" yet supported revitalization and development of their own communities, not unlike the many tea party members who supported Medicare but detested food stamps. He also points to strong identification with law enforcement as a factor. Incidents like the MOVE raids, the murder of Daniel Faulkner, the Osage Street unrest all represented a flaring up of racial tension around law enforcement. I was surprised to learn that Philadelphia actively undid many positive reform measures because of the Rizzocrat influence. The side effects of this became apparent recently with the fallout over George Floyd's killing. Lombardo highlights parallels between Trumpism and Rizzo-ism, although they're apparent throughout his book.
Perhaps Lombardo could have spent more time discussing the percolation of blue-collar conservatism within political parties or discussing how it still influences the local Democratic establishment. He kind of skipped over the 1990s, where local politics remained bifurcated along these lines. And his modern analysis is more about Trump than local happenings, which makes it weaker than the historical elements. This is a historical piece, after all, and that he does ably.
He explains well how blue-collar conservatism invokes law-and-order, neighborhood stability, and selective government intervention through a patina of racial neutrality. However, as he notes, this often devolves into dog-whistles, and in some cases overt racist appeals (Rizzo's "vote White" comment). A similar work that engaged with these themes is Working-Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. There, Kefalas' look at the Chicago Bungalow Belt touches on how barriers influenced life and politics in an ethnic enclave. It's no surprise that the areas Kefalas and Lombardo spend a lot of time discussing were still more favorable towards Trump than the rest of their respective cities. It also brings to mind the "outer-borough conservatism" Ross Douthat has talked about before. Trump himself reflects this ideology, prominent in parts of Long Island and Staten Island. The New York 2nd District GOP primary actually puts on display a contest over this kind of conservatism.
A key takeaway is that in right-wing populism, the lines between race, economics, and geography are blurred. This is crucial to understanding what's behind the right-populism prominent today. What made this book so good is that it wasn't a biography of Rizzo, but a bio of the city, an explanation of the conditions that enabled Rizzo's rise. Check out Philadelphia today, and you'll see the legacy of "Blue-Collar Conservatism" if you look in the right places.
June 8, 2020
A political leader screaming about "law and order." Mass protests in the streets. A growing political fissure between blue-collar whites and black men and women facing discrimination. This describes the year 2020 as much as it captures the Frank Rizzo era of Philadelphia in the 1970s, a linkage brought to the fore by Timothy Lombardo's prescient "Blue-Collar Conservatism."
While the book at places becomes overloaded with the political-science phrases of "blue collar conservatism" and is not, nor claims to be, a straight biography of Rizzo, Lombardo's work charts the fascinating life and death of blue-collar conservatives within the Democratic Party. Few political figures better embody blue-collar conservatism than Frank Rizzo, the hulking former police commissioner turned mayor of Philadelphia. Lombardo squares in on the 1960s and 1970s in Philadelphia, including the growth of white identity politics of blue-collar conservatism that prized its supposed strong work ethic over the free hand-outs given to blacks and other minorities.
Lombardo makes the important point that the racism and economic outlook of blue-collar Philadelphians was inextricably intertwined: from white neighborhoods in South Philly and the Far Northeast, white citizens fought tooth-and-nail against integration of schools, public housing and a progressive politics that opened up opportunities for men and women long faced with subtle and not-so-subtle integration.
Rizzo became the avatar of that blue-collar masculine politics: more a symbol than an effective political fighter for the interests of the white men and women increasingly squeezed by federal austerity, cut-backs on benefits and policies that favored the few rich over the many lower- and middle-classes. Gradually, Rizzo's star wanes as white flight picks up in the 1980s and 1990s, ending with his death in 1991 while running to be the Republican mayor of Philadelphia. Those white voters that elected Rizzo may not have remained in the city, but they did remain closely linked with Rizzo, moving from the Democratic to the Republican party and ensuring Pennsylvania's role as one of the preeminent swing states in national elections.
Frank Rizzo's statue, as well as a mural overlooking the Italian Market neighborhood, were recently removed, hoisted off and painted over with much rejoicing from the Black Lives Matter crowds and other protesters. It is easy to look on these developments with pride; however, the task of winning back blue-collar conservatives to the Democratic party inspires fear over the 2020 election and future prospects. The United States awaits a candidate who can sew together the racial progressivism of Black Lives Matter with the economic anxieties of the white blue-collar class. Otherwise, no matter how many statues come down, figures in the mold of Trump will continue to rear their head and claim the mantle of blue-collar politics.
While the book at places becomes overloaded with the political-science phrases of "blue collar conservatism" and is not, nor claims to be, a straight biography of Rizzo, Lombardo's work charts the fascinating life and death of blue-collar conservatives within the Democratic Party. Few political figures better embody blue-collar conservatism than Frank Rizzo, the hulking former police commissioner turned mayor of Philadelphia. Lombardo squares in on the 1960s and 1970s in Philadelphia, including the growth of white identity politics of blue-collar conservatism that prized its supposed strong work ethic over the free hand-outs given to blacks and other minorities.
Lombardo makes the important point that the racism and economic outlook of blue-collar Philadelphians was inextricably intertwined: from white neighborhoods in South Philly and the Far Northeast, white citizens fought tooth-and-nail against integration of schools, public housing and a progressive politics that opened up opportunities for men and women long faced with subtle and not-so-subtle integration.
Rizzo became the avatar of that blue-collar masculine politics: more a symbol than an effective political fighter for the interests of the white men and women increasingly squeezed by federal austerity, cut-backs on benefits and policies that favored the few rich over the many lower- and middle-classes. Gradually, Rizzo's star wanes as white flight picks up in the 1980s and 1990s, ending with his death in 1991 while running to be the Republican mayor of Philadelphia. Those white voters that elected Rizzo may not have remained in the city, but they did remain closely linked with Rizzo, moving from the Democratic to the Republican party and ensuring Pennsylvania's role as one of the preeminent swing states in national elections.
Frank Rizzo's statue, as well as a mural overlooking the Italian Market neighborhood, were recently removed, hoisted off and painted over with much rejoicing from the Black Lives Matter crowds and other protesters. It is easy to look on these developments with pride; however, the task of winning back blue-collar conservatives to the Democratic party inspires fear over the 2020 election and future prospects. The United States awaits a candidate who can sew together the racial progressivism of Black Lives Matter with the economic anxieties of the white blue-collar class. Otherwise, no matter how many statues come down, figures in the mold of Trump will continue to rear their head and claim the mantle of blue-collar politics.
March 24, 2023
I think this book did a really great job describing the rise of blue-collar conservatism. As a historical monograph, I thought that the analysis was unbiased and also offered an analysis of modern conservatism that should really be more well-known. This book slayed. I wouldn't have found it if not for class though, and I don't think it would be many people's cup of tea.
August 7, 2019
An interesting read on white ethnic politics, focusing on Philadelphia from the 1950's to the 1970's and the rise of that city's mayor, Frank Rizzo.
November 19, 2022
Color blindness, urban politics, morrell park/Whitman neighborhoods - labor and integration
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews