Do the 1990s hold the key to understanding contemporary authoritarian populism in America? That’s the contention of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz, an intellectual historian who made his name writing his Unpopular Front newsletter on Substack.

In a post-2016 election daze, liberals often projected onto the past a frictionless world of open borders blown to smithereens by Donald Trump. But the last decade of the last century was no multicultural paradise, Ganz shows. That decade offered previews of today’s authoritarian politics, from Pat Buchanan’s insurgency and an arrogant political center to the ex-Klansman David Duke’s dash into mainstream politics. Hence the book’s title: When the Clock Broke.

The book is one of many that look to the history of conservatism — especially its less decorous aspects — to find harbingers for Trumpism. As a consequence, When the Clock Broke raises important questions about the uses and abuses of history. Where do you start looking to get a grip on Trump? Ganz’s broader — though curiously unexplored — answer to this question is that the 1990s were a singularly important preview of what came after it and witnessed a crisis of authority that allowed for the rise of fringe alternatives.