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Politics expert's book named amongst 2018's best

11 December 2018
Our expert’s book among The Wall Street Journal’s top picks
A new book written by Associate Professor Salvatore Babones from the School of Social and Political Sciences has been named one of 2018's best reads in The Wall Street Journal.
Associate Professor Salvatore Babones, and the cover of his book.

In the outlet’s ‘Best of 2018’ round-up, political writer Barton Swaim included Associate Professor Babones’ The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts as one of the top political reads of the year.

The New Authoritarianism examines issues of power, populism and politics against the backdrop of historic events that have defined the modern world – including the UK Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

“In The New Authoritarianism… Salvatore Babones, an American-born professor of sociology and social policy at the University of Sydney, doesn’t defend Mr. Trump or his administration. But he does suggest the Trump phenomenon may galvanize a revival of democratic self-rule,” wrote Mr Swaim in the piece.

“To have my book named among the best political books of the year in such a prominent and widely-read publication is a huge honour,” said Associate Professor Babones.

Associate Professor Babones is the author or editor of 10 books and more than 20 academic research articles. His two main areas of academic research are the political economy of the greater China region and the methodology of quantitative modeling in the social sciences. He also publishes extensively on American social and foreign policy.

Other political books named in The Wall Street Journal’s Best of 2018 list included tomes by British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, American political theorist Patrick Deneen and English literature scholar Alan Jacobs.

Jennifer Peterson-Ward

Media and PR Adviser (Humanities)

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