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American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now
How did Americans come to elect Barack Obama—and then Donald Trump? Those choices capture what Paul Starr calls the American contradiction.
The whole truth about America, Starr argues in this new history of the United States since the 1950s, has never been contained in one consistent set of values or interests. Our nation was born in the contradiction between freedom and slavery. Today it is beset by a contradiction between a changing people and a resisting nation, a nation with entrenched institutions that have empowered those who fear the changes and look to restore an old America of their imagining.
Starr tells this history from the dual standpoints of the progressive movements that changed the American people and of the movements that emerged in response. Black Americans, he argues, served as a model minority, setting in motion America’s twentieth-century revolutions in gender as well as race and rights. With industry’s decline and the rise of economic inequality, millions of Americans have felt dispossessed and want the old America back. Trump is their revenge. American Contradiction tells the story of how 1950s America became the almost unrecognizable America of the 2020s.
The whole truth about America, Starr argues in this new history of the United States since the 1950s, has never been contained in one consistent set of values or interests. Our nation was born in the contradiction between freedom and slavery. Today it is beset by a contradiction between a changing people and a resisting nation, a nation with entrenched institutions that have empowered those who fear the changes and look to restore an old America of their imagining.
Starr tells this history from the dual standpoints of the progressive movements that changed the American people and of the movements that emerged in response. Black Americans, he argues, served as a model minority, setting in motion America’s twentieth-century revolutions in gender as well as race and rights. With industry’s decline and the rise of economic inequality, millions of Americans have felt dispossessed and want the old America back. Trump is their revenge. American Contradiction tells the story of how 1950s America became the almost unrecognizable America of the 2020s.
456 pages, Hardcover
Published October 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 10, 2026
A sociological and historical analysis of how movements from Feminism to African American Emancipation have shaped American politics from the 1950s to 2025. Shows how the Supreme Court has shifted to the right over successive administrations and that men and women are diverging politically due to poorer economic prospects from men. Ultimately, Starr argues that Trump’s programme (2025 and beyond) are an attempt to restore a ‘lost past’ and do not prepare America for a future challenges, like AI, climate change and an aging society.
December 30, 2025
Good, this book talks about popular mobilization, the Supreme Court, Congress, and the Presidency in the last 75 years.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews