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Professor Carlos de la Torre Shares Decades of Populism Expertise in New Book

Carlos de la Torre
Carlos de la Torre, professor in the Department of Sociology, has penned "Populisms. A Quick Immersion," a brief yet informative introduction to the topic.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 6, 2019) — What exactly is populism, and how do populists rise to power? Carlos de la Torre, professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, has penned "Populisms. A Quick Immersion," a brief yet informative introduction to the topic.

The short volume explores global populism from a Latin American perspective. More specifically, de la Torre explains how learning from the experiences of populism in the global south could allow the global north to avoid making similar mistakes. “I have been researching populism for more than two decades, and I believe that countries in the global north have much they can learn from Latin American experiences with populist leaders,” he explained.

“Populism has become one of the defining political movements of the 21st century, and Carlos de la Torre’s 'Populisms: A Quick Immersion' works to demystify it. Few books touch a contemporary nerve quite like this one,” Benjamin Welton, with Foreword Reviews, said.

“Carlos de la Torre offers the reader a masterly overview of populism as a political set of disruptive and mobilizing events, as well as a subject of sustained and diversified academic debate. The author has written a highly persuasive, timely and readable analysis,” Michael Freeden, editor of the Journal of Political Ideologies, added.

De la Torre earned his doctorate at the New School for Social Research and was selected for fellowships at the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He has published a dozen books and more than 100 articles and chapters in academic publications. 

De la Torre is the second in a prestigious line-up of authors of the Quick Immersions books. The goal of the book series is to combine reliable facts with straightforward explanations to aid anyone who would like to expand his or her knowledge of diverse issues in science, humanities, philosophy, and social and political sciences.

"Populisms. A Quick Immersion," published by Tibidabo Publishing Inc., is now available on amazon.com.