The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics: Summary & Key Insights

After the Second World War, Western societies underwent a remarkable transformation. Economic prosperity, welfare expansion, and the liberalization of norms created a new social contract grounded in mobility and individual achievement. In Britain, the postwar education reforms, and later the university expansion of the 1960s and 1970s, built the foundation for an 'Anywhere' worldview. Education opened doors and encouraged people to see themselves as citizens of the world rather than members of a locality. Professional and geographic mobility became not only possible but necessary for success. As the industrial working class declined, local ties weakened, and what I call the 'mass cognitive class'—well-educated, professional, and mobile citizens—rose to dominance.

This shift reshaped politics as well. The parties and institutions that once spoke for traditional communities began to align themselves with the emerging professional elite. Meritocracy became the new social ideal, but it also came at a price. Those who did not benefit from this liberal, mobile transformation—people who valued family, place, and continuity—found themselves marginalized not only economically but culturally. Their values came to be dismissed as parochial, nostalgic, or even regressive. By the 1990s and early 2000s, this cultural demotion laid the emotional groundwork for what would later express itself as populism.

The 'Somewheres' are people whose identities are strongly rooted in a specific place, community, or inherited way of life. They are the citizens who derive meaning not from moving up and out, but from belonging and continuity. They fear dislocation because their social and emotional investments lie close to home. Their working lives are often tied to physical locations—factories, service industries, or local institutions—and their social circles rarely extend far beyond their region.

For Somewheres, stability is a moral value. Their worldview prizes order, loyalty, and familiarity. Rapid cultural change—be it through mass immigration, shifting gender roles, or the erosion of local traditions—feels like an attack on their sense of self. Crucially, they do not see themselves as against progress; rather, they want a progress that does not erase the fabric of their lives. The Somewhere disposition thus tends to lean toward communitarianism and skepticism of globalization. These are the people who voted for Brexit not simply out of antipathy to Europe but as an assertion of identity and control over their collective destiny.