Trump, Bannon, and Gangs of New York

James Chandler, author of The Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning, has written a new article for History Ireland exploring the 19th century nativist ideology at the root of the current administration. “Know-Nothingism in America, Then and Now,” is available to read online now.

Chandler discusses the brief but influential historical movement at the core of his new PPP pamphlet, the Know-Nothing movement that evolved into the American Party in 1854. “That 1850s movement, for all its brevity, is probably the most influential incarnation of American Nativism, marking a major pivot in antebellum American history,” Chandler writes. Founded in opposition to Irish-Catholic immigration, the political organization saw explosive growth in a short period, surging from a few dozen members in 1852 to over a million by 1854.

Steve Bannon, a chief architect of Trumpism, has claimed affiliation with the Know-Nothing movement in the past: “You got to remember, we’re Breitbart. We’re the know-nothing vulgarians.” The current administration’s xenophobic, anti-intellectual stance owes much to its 19th century antecedent. Chandler uncovers, however, a deep irony in Bannon’s nativism: his great-grandfather Lawrence Bannon emigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1850, right as Know-Nothingism came into its own.

The most well-known representation of the Know-Nothingism in popular culture is Martin Scorsese’s 2002 historical epic Gangs of New York. Daniel Day-Lewis plays William “The Butcher” Poole, a real historical figure who led the Bowery Boys gang and New York’s nativist movement.

In his piece for History Ireland, Chandler digs into old issues of The Brooklyn Eagle and finds that a William Poole (possibly the William Poole) served a term on New York City’s Board of Education. There’s no historical evidence that Lawrence Bannon and Poole ever came in contact, or indeed that Bannon was even in New York at the height of Poole’s influence. But still—”the very idea of him under the tutelage of Daniel Day-Lewis’s William Poole character in Gangs of New York conjures an image to reckon with,” Chandler writes.

The Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning is available to read online now and preorder in print.