The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics Hardcover – July 1, 2017

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I was afraid I was going to get a typical liberal hatchet-job on Brexiteers and oiks. The familiar stuff about that section of the population notorious for being stupid, reactionary, nostalgic for times-long-gone, and so forth.I'm pleased to say that David Goodhart's book is considerably better than that: it's well-written and quite a page-turner, despite a fair degree of repetition and the occasional splash of necessary but dry statistics.Goodhart is open-minded, understands Jonathan Haidt's  The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion  on the differing moral foundations of liberals and conservatives, and sees how much light this sheds into his 'Anywheres' and 'Somewheres' distinction. And although he never leaves the outer boundaries of the liberal paradigm, he does acknowledge innate differences in cognitive, personality and gender attributes (normally denied by liberals) and sees atomised individualism for the fanciful illusion it is.Using an approach grounded in history, economics and sociology, his book details the damage that decades of neoliberalism has done to the fabric of non-elite life across the world. Goodhart's 'Anywheres' are deliberately myopic about this - they either do not care or think it's actually positive.He makes a further very telling point: with the demise of the mass-unionised manufacturing sector, the elites are no longer afraid of the diminished and fragmented working class. They pursue their own agendas with impunity.Those chickens finally came home to roost with Brexit, Trumpism and the generic rise of 'populism'.Goodhart is keen to propose a political solution. He favours policies for strengthening technical education, controlling permanent immigration and improving integration, reinforcing the family and encouraging job/career opportunities for the 'non cognitive-elite'. You can already hear the condescending insults of the 'Anywheres' to such 'reactionary tosh'. His general approach is what Tony Smith's  Globalization: A Systematic Marxian Account (Historical Materialism Books (Haymarket Books))  would probably call 'the social state', a recasting of 1950s social-democracy for the modern age.Goodhart is detailed and descriptive, but with insufficient analysis as to why the extraordinarily silly ideas of the 'Anywheres' (expressed most clearly and absurdly in the 'political correctness' of 'social justice warriors') have become the entrenched ruling ideology of the age.The answer is surely that they happen to express the entrenched interests and practices of the globalised elites themselves. With such powerful economic buttresses, coolly rational critical thinking from people like David Goodhart has hitherto found little purchase. Any influence he may yet develop will depend upon the 'populist' masses in motion - which do seem to be unsettling the elites, judging by their reactions. So although I read the book with much interest, I didn't feel in the end much of a wow-factor, as if I had suddenly understood the world in a new and more profound way.It's more like David Goodhart, Ambassador to the 'Somewheres' from the 'Anywheres', returned to write down his considered thoughts, careful not to appear to have gone native.

I don't think the author's categorisation of Anywheres and Somewheres is particularly original - Anywheres are more educated people who've been exposed to different cultures at a level that they can relate to, Somewheres are less educated, more attached to location and family, more suspicious of people from a different cultures. What I found interesting was his point that Somewheres are not racist per se, that left-wing parties that claim to represent Somewheres are in fact dominated by Anywheres, and that the EU, and the UK in particular, have mindlesssly assumed that they can assimilate a massive increase in immigration of people from Elsewhere.

This dense, well-annotated book takes on the issues behind the votes that brought us Trump and Brexit. Perhaps the book's biggest problem is that one can only read a page or two before wanting to put it down and digest what one has read ... generally, overnight! It is a must-read for American political scientists, particularly liberals. The (primarily British) examples allow one to disengage emotionally just enough to internalize, then recognize, truths about race, class structure, and social change that exist right below the surface in the US, yet are taboo in discussion here.

This review is about the binding of the paperback not the content of the book. The spine of the paperback is very stiff, and the gutter margins are too narrow. It’s difficult to read the gutter edge of the page. In addition the print is small, not fully black, and single spaced. The hardcover is better because the hardcover opens wider (spine is more flexible) but the layout has the same problems. There’s no Kindle edition.

I do however miss a proper gender analysis as well as the effect of technical advantages, such as information technology and mobility of people. Also I do not agree on his analysis in the family section. I am not sure the two parent household is preferable.

Very interesting and very true. It resonated well (unfortunately) with my own research and observations in different parts of the world. I think that this book should be read by everyone.

Well done, well thought out. Great job of getting past the noise and getting to the fundamental issues driving the behaviors.

Just because you disagree with one or two aspects of an author’s philosophy does not mean that you will have nothing good to say about a book that he has written. That’s a lesson that we can all learn from David Goodhart’s book THE ROAD TO SOMEWHERE.Goodhart was on the Remain side of the EU referendum ; an “Anywhere” person in his language. I was, and am, on the Leave side ; what he terms a “Somewhere” person. Does this mean that I can learn nothing from someone with such a diametrically opposed view to my own? Absolutely not. In fact, Goodhart and I probably have more than unites us than divides us, which must be a good thing, since he advocates the building of a consensus between “Anywheres” (who favour globalisation), “Somewheres” (who favour localisation and nation states) and “Inbetweeners” (those who “think global act local”).As early as Page 10, Goodhart expresses a view far more common among Leavers than Remainers, namely that a world order based on many Somewhere nation states is far preferable to one big supranational Anywhere (basically one- world government). He also casts doubt on the validity of Tony Blair’s view that such a government is inevitable, quoting in support the fact that only 3% of the world’s population lives outside their country of birth. He criticises Blair for being somewhat previous in opening up the UK’s borders to Eastern European EU states seven years before the EU required it. That is not the discourse of a rabid Remainer. He makes the memorable point that “democracy requires some simplicity on big questions.” This is particularly true in the case of the UK’s membership of the EU. Given that the EU insisted that “a la carte” membership was not an option, the referendum could not have been decided on the basis of anything other than a “Remain” or “Leave” basis.Full marks are due also to Goodhart’s recognition of the hard fact that human labour is not a geographically mobile commodity. This was backed by the UK courts which ruled in 2016 that mobility clauses in contracts of employment could be enforced only if reasonable having regard to the employee’s personal circumstances. This long-overdue judgement recognises one key element of the human condition, namely that geographic stability is a bedrock of family life. As Goodhart points out, people are more rooted than is often assumed.But the book isn’t just a chronicle of the EU referendum and its aftermath. It gives sensible life advice for all. One point is particularly memorable. “The problem with simple solutions is that they raise expectations that are almost always disappointed.” Spot on, and more relevant in the extremely complex and imperfect world of the 2020s than ever before. Another nugget of wise advice is, “With greater opportunity comes greater risk.” In an age in which we are encouraged to believe that we can have a risk-free existence if we drastically cut car use and willingly submit to having an unlimited number of vaccines for every bug that’s going, that’s a point worth making. He champions integration in a racially-mixed society by promoting common in-group ideology such as respect for the values of the host nation and focusing on the things that matter to all of us, like mutual respect and basic manners.Goodhart observes, “political values can be mongrel.” He is the first prominent author to make this point. I’ve always felt something of a political mongrel, supporting Brexit yet also firmly advocating home working and casting doubt on the allegedly platinum-plated excellence of grammar schools, views not typically associated with many Brexiteers.THE ROAD TO SOMEWHERE was published in 2017 and five years later seems something of a period piece. For instance, Goodhart predicts that Brexit may be diluted or even reversed. Both may have seemed probable in 2017, but so far, he’s been proved wrong on the second count, although the first is subjective and re-joining the EU is still a strategic objective of the Liberal Democrats. But this is not a good reason to give the book a low rating. It is a sensible, rational piece that refutes the stereotype of the ideologically polarised globalist Remainer. I give it five stars.

As expected

Nicht nur in den USA hat ein Populist gewonnen auch in Großbritannien haben sich Populisten mit dem Brexit durchgesetzt. Wie konnte das passieren?Goodhart analysiert sehr überzeugend, die Veränderungen im sozialen Gefüge in Großbritannien (und den USA) und kommt zur inzwischen viel zitierten Unterscheidung der "anywheres" und der "somewheres". Man könnte auch sagen: der Globalisten und der Lokalisten. Und die Somewheres fühlen sich nicht verstanden in ihren Sorgen und wählen diejenigen, die ihnen ein Verständnis suggerieren. Wobei Goodhart stark auf die Veränderung in der Arbeiterschaft in den angelsächsischen Ländern abstellt, in denen eine Deindustrialiesierung und damit eine Abwertung und Verunsicherung der Schicht der Industriearbeiter seiner Ansicht nach statt gefunden hat.

Should be read by anybody who wants to understand the very important changes in society and why we have Brexit, Trump and other movements in Europe who feel they are left behind and exploited.

It’s always a good intellectual exercise to read a book that puts forward ideas you fundamentally disagree with. This is one of those instances. Based on multiple, mostly British, statistical sources to make his case, the author comes up with a new division of society. Oversimplifying, the main groups are the liberal, worldly, educated, and mobile "Anywheres," and the more rooted, nationalist, traditionalist, and stability-seekers "Somewheres." The former, although accounting only for around 20% of the population, have shaped and defined the politics and policies of the last two decades. The latter, accounting for almost half of the population, have resented their perceived displacement, and their votes would explain the success of the Brexit result, and by extension Trump’s election, and the rise of populism across Europe among other outcomes. So far, this sounds factual enough, but it is when prescribing “solutions” that I part ways with this book. The author claims that “decent populism, moderate nationalism, and restrained immigration” are to be catered to avoid the peril of the "Somewheres" succumbing to the lure of extreme versions, and goes on to endorse a panoply of very reactionary ideas, disguising them as post-liberalism. No, thank you.