In 1986, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, wrote The Cycles of American History, which included a chapter on the cycle of American politics. Schlesinger viewed America’s political cycles as alterations “between public purpose” (which as a liberal, he favored) and “private interest.” He claimed that since the late 19th century, each cycle has lasted about 40 years.

Trump astounded the political world by defeating Hillary Clinton ... the political establishment of both parties, and every “right-thinking” person.
Schlesinger’s heroes were Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and later John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson — all shaped by the Progressive Era in U.S. politics. He asserted that presidential administrations that emphasized the “public purpose” were less corrupt than those who emphasized “private interests” — in reality, the opposite is true. The book was typical Schlesinger — using history to promote liberal politics.
Instead of cycles, American political history has been divided into eras that were and are shaped by political movements and political leaders. We are today living in the Trump Era. Since 2016, Donald Trump has dominated American politics whether he was winning or losing elections. Trump has led a populist revolt against the Progressive Era, which dominated American politics, except during a few brief interludes, for more than a century.
Trump did not start the political movement that seeded the revolt against progressivism, but he did embrace it as his own and lead it to political victory. Let’s see how we got here.
The Founding Era of American politics was shaped by the War of Independence and differing perspectives on federalism. The political leaders that most defined that era were George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who promoted domestic unity, foreign policy neutrality, mercantilist economics, and Manifest Destiny. That era was eclipsed by the Jacksonian era, when populism and sectionalism emerged to reshape American poli...