Academics carried the word populism from America to Europe

Evidence

How did the American product finally find its way to European markets? As usual, academics turned out to be the most capable smugglers. In the 1970s and 1980s a burgeoning field of far-right studies took up the term, which subsequently migrated to Europe’s media pages. Most researchers in this field drew on the work of the historian Richard Hofstadter, who had portrayed American populism as “proto-fascist” in the 1950s. One of the most influential of these academics was the French political scientist Pierre-André Taguieff, who in 1984 labeled the rising National Front as “national-populist,” rather than the old and outworn “fascist.” — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 66

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The word populism originated with American Midwest farmers, not Europe — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 58; Academic definitions of populism have spawned a media industry resembling personality-test astrology — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 48; Academic far-right studies carried American populism discourse into European media — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 66