This is a very compelling historical background to current events. If you want to understand how America got where it is, this is a must read, by one of the clearest thinkers we have. It is as readable as it is gobsmackingly relevant, and the audio is read well by the author.

We all know all sort of bits and pieces of this story, but this book threads them seamlessly together, and you make all sorts of connections. I learned all sorts of things, like the additional shenanigans Richard Nixon was up to starting fake news as a thing, and working against the peace talks in Vietnam to defeat the Democrats. I also learned that it was the same margin in the electoral collage that made Donald Trump claim a landslide in 2016, that Biden got in 2020, when Trump insisted he had won instead.

I learned that in the fifties and early sixties there was a liberal consensus in America, and even the evangelicals agreed that abortion was between a woman and her doctor, acknowledging that sometimes it was necessary. During the liberal consensus, America was on the uprise, and people were happy to have everyone have equal access to the American dream. I learned I want to know more about Johnson’s presidency; there was a sense of vision then, since most Americans’ basic needs were met, and they could afford to make all sorts of progressive legislation regarding quality of life. But with the vote, black, brown, and immigrant voters voted for social reforms, which the landowners– who were white– didn’t want to fund with their property tax. Enter Reagan’s “trickle down theory of economics” that favored those white landowners, and whose money flowed then to white collar military spending, bypassing the minorities as planned, widening the income gap.

White supremacy in the KKK, feeling threatened by desegregation, cooped the evangelical movement, realizing that subjugating women through a supposedly moral stand on abortion would serve the same ends as delineating themselves as distinct from minorities. For many years, the crescendo towards Christian Nationalism has been carefully fostered and nurtured by authoritarian white males, acting like this is what the founders wanted, which is far from the truth. You also come to see many other dangerous steps, which have been taken by the right to undermine democracy in ways our founders couldn’t have even imagined, like colluding with foreign governments to manipulate elections.

So here we are in this election, choosing between “all created equal” with government “by the people and for the people,” or being dictated to by the extreme authoritarian fascism of a few rich, ruthlessly manipulative, power-seeking-at-all-costs, selfish white males, who demand loyalty to person rather than law. I applaud anyone who votes for the former and against the latter. I feel compassion for whoever has found themselves duped under the thrall of those that think they are more equal than anyone else.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and only wish I read it sooner, so I could recommend it sooner. The author is a well respected professor of history, and the FACTS shared here are refreshing in their clarity, even though troubling in their content. All of American history is encapsulated in this book, from the liberal consensus to the present day, as well as back to the founding fathers all the way forward. I give this book a hearty five stars.