Historical Roots of America's New Turn to Economic Nationalism

This paper deals with the new changes in the economic and political policies of the US in the Donald Trump era. Economic nationalism refers to an ideology that favors smart protectionism over free market system in order to strengthen internal economic infrastructures. Rising of economic nationalism against globalism has been one of the main characteristics describing the Trump administration. The question is, why the US government has been returning to economic nationalism during the Trump era. The current economic nationalism has historical origins reaching back to America's War of Independence in the 18th century. It flourished during the 19th century and remained until the 1940s. There are many signs of American economic nationalism until the outbreak of World War II in spite of the first wave of globalization in the late 19th century. Donald Trump's election victory shows the fact that advocates of the return to American economic nationalism have been surprisingly growing during the last decade.