Why does everyone hate white liberals?
When seen in person, the dust jacket of UIC historian Kevin M. Schultz’s “Why Everyone Hates White Liberals” features a mirror-like surface in which readers can see themselves reflected. Portrait courtesy the author • book design by Rae Ganci Hammers/University of Chicago Press
There are deep divides in American politics, but one thing a lot of people agree on is their distaste for white liberals. Conservatives think they’re left-wing nut jobs, progressives think they’re corporate shills, and many people of color are suspicious that they’re at best tepid allies. All this is the subject of a recent book by UIC historian Kevin M. Schultz: Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals).
Mentioned on the show:
- Excerpt from Schultz’s book (Harper's 2025)
- Club for Growth ad attacking Howard Dean (2004)
- Martin Luther King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” (1963)
- Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits, written by Lawrence O’Donnell Jr.) defends liberals on The West Wing (2005)
- Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (2025)
Guest
Kevin M. Schultz
Professor in History, Religious Studies, and Catholic Studies • University of Illinois Chicago
Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals): A History (University of Chicago Press 2025)
Buckley and Mailer: The Difficult Friendship That Shaped the Sixties (W.W. Norton & Company 2015)
Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise (Oxford University Press 2011)
