An up-close look at the voters of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania who decisively swung the state for Donald J. Trump, examining the role of the President's base as the midterm elections loom

Luzerne County Pennsylvania, as Ben Bradlee describes it, is a microcosm of the nation. While it boasts its own police, firemen, schools and municipal services, Luzerne has few urban centers and is fundamentally rural in character. And like so many of the 3,000 other counties that resemble it across America, Donald J. Trump won Luzerne County in 2016. But President Obama had carried Luzerne in both elections. What changed? And what does this mean for America?

The Forgotten tells this story, revealing how Trump voters came to feel like strangers in their own land, marginalized by flat or falling wages, rapid demographic change, and a liberal culture that mocks their faith and patriotism. As they explain it, residents of Luzerne felt like others were 'cutting in line' and that the federal government was taking too much money from the employed and giving it to the idle. They felt a loss of breadwinner status, and more importantly, a loss of dignity.

Drawing an unforgettable portrait of Americans caught in a fraught political moment that doesn't seem to end, The Forgotten not only expresses the growing divide between the two political parties, but also the immense forces that powered the election of Donald Trump. America is changing, and the men and women of The Forgotten are the ones who are changing it.

About the Author
Ben Bradlee Jr. is the author of the critically acclaimed The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams (2013). Bradlee has spent 25 years with The Boston Globe, and as deputy managing editor, oversaw the Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church from July 2001 to August 2002.


Book Information
ISBN 9780316515733
Author Ben Bradlee, Jr.
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Little, Brown & Company
Publisher Little, Brown & Company
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 156mm * 32mm