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Antidemocracy in America: Truth, Power, and the Republic at Risk
On Election Day in 2016, it seemed unthinkable to many Americans that Donald Trump could become president of the United States. But the victories of the Obama administration hid from view fundamental problems deeply rooted in American social institutions and history. The election's consequences drastically changed how Americans experience their country, especially for those threatened by the public outburst of bigotry and repression. Amid the deluge of tweets and breaking news stories that turn each day into a political soap opera, it can be difficult to take a step back and see the big picture. To confront the threats we face, we must recognize that the Trump presidency is a symptom, not the malady.
Antidemocracy in America is a collective effort to understand how we got to this point and what can be done about it. Assembled by the sociologist Eric Klinenberg as well as the editors of the online magazine Public Books, Caitlin Zaloom and Sharon Marcus, it offers essays from many of the nation's leading scholars, experts on topics including race, religion, gender, civil liberties, protest, inequality, immigration, climate change, national security, and the role of the media. Antidemocracy in America places our present in international and historical context, considering the worldwide turn toward authoritarianism and its varied precursors. Each essay seeks to inform our understanding of the fragility of American democracy and suggests how to protect it from the buried contradictions that Trump's victory brought into public view.
Antidemocracy in America is a collective effort to understand how we got to this point and what can be done about it. Assembled by the sociologist Eric Klinenberg as well as the editors of the online magazine Public Books, Caitlin Zaloom and Sharon Marcus, it offers essays from many of the nation's leading scholars, experts on topics including race, religion, gender, civil liberties, protest, inequality, immigration, climate change, national security, and the role of the media. Antidemocracy in America places our present in international and historical context, considering the worldwide turn toward authoritarianism and its varied precursors. Each essay seeks to inform our understanding of the fragility of American democracy and suggests how to protect it from the buried contradictions that Trump's victory brought into public view.
- GenresPoliticsEssaysNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
Published June 25, 2019
13 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Eric Klinenberg
16 books259 followersEric M. Klinenberg is an American sociologist and a scholar of urban studies, culture, and media. He is currently Helen Gould Shepard Professor in Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. Klinenberg is best known for his contributions as a public sociologist.
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June 16, 2019
Thanks to Columbia University Press for the free copy at BEA 2019!
This book is a collection of essays from various academic scholars about the causes and symptoms of the Trump administration, as well as the things they are currently doing and it attempts to offer some solutions.
As a collection of essays, some stand out well and others don't. There are a few that overemphasize the role of the "white working class" and pretend that Trump is unique amongst Republicans, while others point out how critical his support from the suburban petit bourgeois was and how he is the culmination of trends that Republicans have been supporting for decades.
There's a really good section that I think represents the best synthesis of the arguments made, in the chapter "Gun Culture":
"The Trump presidency represents at once a change and importantly a continuation of a longer history. It is a history whose pillars are racism, militarization, and working class economic decline.
It was not Trump who waged a war on communism in the Far East, but Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. It was not was not Trump who started the first war in Iraq, but George H.W. Bush. It was not Trumo who began to militarize the border and speak of illegal immigration as a national security threat but rather Bill Clinton. And it was not Trump who helped destroy the stability of working class employment in America but rather a long list of our presidents, not the least of whom was Barack Obama" - pg 180-181.
Overall, a solid analysis if you don't know too much beyond the simple "orange man bad" analysis that the mainstream media gives you. Plays into some Russophobic vibes, but not as much as normally from mainstream publications on Trump. If you are wanting for something deeper than Colbert's nightly homophobic anti-Trump disses, read this. But if you are looking for solutions, this book is lacking beyond a vague "we should help working people". The left has and will continue to produce better solutions than the bland and empty answers found in this, but it's analysis of the current problem is much more substantive than what I was initially expecting (I expected to be thoroughly disappointed by yet another book that says "orange man got the Soviets to rig the election against Mother, and the answer to stop him in 2020 is we need to get more racist").
This book is a collection of essays from various academic scholars about the causes and symptoms of the Trump administration, as well as the things they are currently doing and it attempts to offer some solutions.
As a collection of essays, some stand out well and others don't. There are a few that overemphasize the role of the "white working class" and pretend that Trump is unique amongst Republicans, while others point out how critical his support from the suburban petit bourgeois was and how he is the culmination of trends that Republicans have been supporting for decades.
There's a really good section that I think represents the best synthesis of the arguments made, in the chapter "Gun Culture":
"The Trump presidency represents at once a change and importantly a continuation of a longer history. It is a history whose pillars are racism, militarization, and working class economic decline.
It was not Trump who waged a war on communism in the Far East, but Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. It was not was not Trump who started the first war in Iraq, but George H.W. Bush. It was not Trumo who began to militarize the border and speak of illegal immigration as a national security threat but rather Bill Clinton. And it was not Trump who helped destroy the stability of working class employment in America but rather a long list of our presidents, not the least of whom was Barack Obama" - pg 180-181.
Overall, a solid analysis if you don't know too much beyond the simple "orange man bad" analysis that the mainstream media gives you. Plays into some Russophobic vibes, but not as much as normally from mainstream publications on Trump. If you are wanting for something deeper than Colbert's nightly homophobic anti-Trump disses, read this. But if you are looking for solutions, this book is lacking beyond a vague "we should help working people". The left has and will continue to produce better solutions than the bland and empty answers found in this, but it's analysis of the current problem is much more substantive than what I was initially expecting (I expected to be thoroughly disappointed by yet another book that says "orange man got the Soviets to rig the election against Mother, and the answer to stop him in 2020 is we need to get more racist").
Displaying 1 of 1 review