ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the role played by borders as a key discourse topic of the narratives of the nation which have emerged in the USA during and after the presidency of Donald J. Trump. The force of attraction exercised on the electorate by populist movements, parties and leaders in many countries worldwide relies, in many respects, on the same “cry of distress and fury” that Hobsbawm identified in the early 1990s, and has prompted very similar reactions of closure of, and exclusion from, the nation and its borders. The DHA explains discourse and its structures in the wider historical and social and cultural context of text production. The DHA has proved very effective in identifying and analysing the strategies behind discourses of racism and discrimination and the links between ideologies, discourses and texts.
