The Nation We Knew: How an Extraordinary Geophysical Event Reinvented America—and the World

by Steven Douglas Shepard

What would the United States look like—what would it represent—if leadership suddenly put country before party, possibility before dogma, and created a vision of a better future and then executed against that vision? In this thought-provoking book, a new president takes the country to task—and reinvents government, healthcare, job creation, foreign relations, transportation infrastructure, and education, and with the help of her unlikely cabinet, shows the nation—and the world—what could be, rather than what is.

297 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2021

Reviews

[Sabine Shepard · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only this story were reality instead of fiction. This is a inspiring story of what could be.

[L.C. Rooney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel may be a genre unto itself, as it's very difficult to categorize. Political fantasy? Ideological diatribe disguised as a work of fiction? What I will say, however, is that, from a reader's perspective, it was like standing in a doorway overhearing a long political monologue. It is primarily exposition in the form of "dialogue," which is, in fact, almost exclusively just one person talking about what they feel are their professional accomplishments--in this case, a former president of the United States. (The book is set in the near future, as she's identified as the 47th president). There is an occasional attempt to ground the reader in time and place through detailed descriptions of pouring drinks, setting down glasses, taking a bite of a sandwich, helping in the kitchen, and leaving the room to make a phone call or check email. (Ugh.)

The premise was intriguing (which is why I bought it), but the execution was not engaging at all.

In addition, many (most?) of the "accomplishments" of the former president were so far-fetched as to require the substantial scaffolding of a geophysical event (a polar reversal) to attempt to make them seem even remotely feasible. (The full absurdity of the changes this former president made while in office are best illustrated on page 231.) Because of this, the entire novel can't pass the laugh test. Speaking of laughter, in a list of no fewer than 65 "footnotes," just four of them provide actual sources. The rest simply say, "It's true. Check it out." (No, seriously. That is literally the entire "footnote.")

Finally, as other reviews here have noted, the author's political bias is not just evident throughout, it's a hammer over the head. There were so many excellent ways to have approached this project that it's a shame the author chose the one he did.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Nation We Knew is a story told by one of my close friends, Dr. Steven Shepard. Steve is a phenomenal storyteller, communicator, and all-around fantastic human being.
I am privileged to be among the initial and ongoing readers from Draft #1 to today's official launch for this book.
Clearly, this is a biased review. But, if you give it just a bit of your time, I think the story will pull you in and ignite your curiosity.
My only constructive critique for Steve is that I wish he would give us more of the story, more of the characters, and perhaps write into the story more of what happens from the closing. Perhaps, Steve will develop a sequel?

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book in my TBR list on my Kindle but couldn't remember what had interested me enough to download it until I finally started reading it. Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame, had mentioned it in one of his Facebook videos because the author had gotten permission to use his name and some of his ideas as part of the story. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, especially considering the current political, ethnic, racial, and economic climate of our country today.

In the not-so-distant future, a journalist decides to write a book about the 47th, and first female apparently, president ten years after she left office. Unlike others who had covered WHAT she accomplished while in office, he wanted to look at WHY she took the steps she did and HOW she got everything accomplished that she did. Figured into the equation is an extraordinary geophysical event called a flux reversal that occurred shortly after she took office and made people much more agreeable in general. Essentially, she threw out the dirty water, but not the baby, and reinvented the wheel of government in America.

While this is set in a fictitious future, the author rather succinctly captures as part of the story our current political, racial, and economic climate, as well as other aspects of life as we currently know it. It presents possible outcomes of asking "what if?" instead of just accepting "that's the way it's always been." What might happen if politicians "left their asses and elephants at the door" and started listening to each other to find common ground and solutions?

While I sometimes had trouble understanding all the machinations and lingo, I had no trouble grasping the concepts behind the ideas. If I were much younger and had political aspirations I would grab these ideas and run with them as much as I could.

This should be required reading for those studying political science or who have any political aspirations.

[Timothy Rivers · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERY interesting book. Sort of a chaotic writing style, but a good read. Leans a little left for my taste, but I highly recommend it if you've got an open mind.

[John Boyda · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, let me say that I do not belong to a political party. If I had to identify myself, I’d say that I’m a libertarian. I prefer that government regulation be kept to a minimum. Some protections and oversights are necessary but it seems to me that many requirements are put in place to bring in revenues in the form of licensing fees or to protect a special interest group that wishes to be exclusionary.

The next item that I’d like to address is the categorization of this book as political fiction. I strongly disagree! This is more of a political fantasy! The book does talk about many of the ills that our society faces. The solutions it envisions would take much longer than the period of time they are allotted in the book. For example, in one or two sentences, the author glossed over TWO changes to the Constitution, term limits for members of the legislature and the president. Term limits have been discussed (without appropriate action) for as long as I can remember and yet suddenly they are enacted without debate or any other fuss. The major engineering projects are discussed (and completed) in a heartbeat. Like I said - Fantasy.

I haven’t read all the other reviews of this book. I’ve glanced at some. Conservatives are grousing at the demonization of Trump and the idealization of liberal ideas. Liberals are praising the visionary focus (and I’m sure that some believe the ideas are feasible). I’ve given the book a 3-star rating; two and a half stars is closer to what it deserves. It was light reading and did give some food for thought. It wasn’t as bad as some books I’ve attempted but it wasn’t as good as other fantasy books I’ve read (I particularly enjoy Neil Gaiman). But, then again, I’m a voracious reader. I would not recommend this book to friends.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the premise, and on first glance liked many of the characters. However, the deeper in I got, the more it felt like a lecture than a book. It wasn’t enjoyable. It was, almost, a manifesto of that the author believed was the right solution to all that ails the US, and the world. Disagreement wasn’t allowed. Some ideas were sound, while others had a specific political bent. Those that agree with that viewpoint will love it. Others will see nothing but sandpaper. Despite the “goal” of uniting people, this book won’t.

[Vancolondon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amadi creates a utopia with commonsense and consensus…. Al the bodyguard is in and out until the end when he’s the fiancé and let’s not forget the librarian meets researcher romance…! Too much … and I haven’t even touched the flux reversal!!

All being said I understand why someone wrote this , it’s a dream many have as they drift off to sleep, a yearning for better and a desire for hope.

Funny moments include mentions of Elon and the references to more iced tea, pass the ketchup etc!

[Melissa Thibodeau · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pie in the sky book

Im my opinion, the author has a pollyanna view, at least for the story. Also, the author is clearly not a fan of president Trump. Thats sad as Trump was one of the best presidents in the last 100 years. I did not appreciate the falsehoods the author wrote regarding Trump.

[Kym Gamble · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an interesting concept, working on a book for the 47th POTUS and getting into the how and why of her many programs. It was pretty even handed until they started Trump bashing and saying Joe brought integrity back to the WH. What a total bummer. It was going along so well until that. I DNF.

[Jeff Schauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Great ideas, but got a little snarky in political judgements. Leans a bit left for me.

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Some concepts in the book make sense while others seem too out there.

[Shawn Fahy · Rating 2 out of 5]

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”
― Noam Chomsky, The Common Good

I’ve had “The Nation We Knew” by Steven Shepard (2021) on my to-read list for a while now and, unfortunately, it was added before I started keeping track of who recommended the book to me.

The book’s cover art, along with its tagline, “How an Extraordinary Geophysical Event Reinvented America-and the World'' give a very non-fictiony vibe, but it turns out that this is, in fact, a work of fiction. The story takes place in 2041-42 and centers around a journalist who is tasked with writing an article on a former US President whose term in office ended ten years prior (savvy readers will note that there is no changing of the President scheduled for 2031, but that gets explained later). The journalist at first doesn’t want the assignment but as he researches the former President, he becomes enthralled with just how great she was for the nation - and, indeed, the world - and decides he will take a leave of absence from his news organization to write a book about her. He ends up interviewing the former President at her home and this interview makes up the bulk of the book: an explanation of how this President put America on the right track in virtually all things, which is really the author’s way of sharing how he thinks things ought to be done.

One of the more amusing - and revealing - parts of the story is hinted at for a while but never explained until almost halfway through the book: the Flux Reversal (it actually has many variations on that name, sometimes capitalized, sometimes not). This is basically the earth’s magnetic poles reversing (I guess this is a real thing that happens every few eons? That’s the author’s theory, anyway), that has many consequences, the biggest of which is that this reversal completely changes human nature and makes everyone a lot kinder…? It seems evident to me that if your proposed policies require this level of deus ex machina to work, then that’s because those ideas don’t work in the world that we actually inhabit. Of course, plenty of Shepard’s “new” ideas are failing as you read this and have been for decades prior.

Most of these ideas are based on the notion that the state can solve any problem if only it has enough power and funding and that it never causes or exacerbates any problem (I think the polar opposite is far closer to the truth). The Chomsky quote at the beginning of this review repeatedly popped into my head as I read this story. Shepard’s ideas are quite radical… within the Overton Window of allowable opinion; rearranging deck chairs on the sinking Titanic, as it were.

Some of these ideas include helping the hungry in America by converting a football field into land for growing crops. America exported $177 billion worth of food in 2021 and imported about 15% of what was consumed here. Needless to say, the hungry in America aren’t in that state due to a failing of production or supply (indeed, many of America’s “hungry” are, in fact, obese). Obtaining an individual share of the massive amount of available food is a question of personal finances, and what single expense does the average American have, “hungry” or otherwise, besides taxes? Why isn’t relieving Americans of their large tax burden ever discussed when helping the poor is the topic? Planting a football field worth of wheat wouldn’t help the masses nearly as much as making the products that the wheat goes into (much less, the individual’s income that goes towards purchasing those products) tax-free.

On the subject of taxes, Shepard thinks that instead of taking a quarter of your income through income tax, it should be done with a massive federal sales tax. The argument is that if you don’t spend your money, then you won’t pay taxes on it. Rejoice, poors, you just have to not spend any of the money you have and then you won’t be taxed! Sadly, I think that even this silly notion would actually be an improvement over the terrible system we have now, where you can make an error on complex tax forms and get thrown in a cage with ass-rapists for it. Still, it seems like a very “let them eat cake” sentiment from Shepard.

With such a keen eye for reform of the US federal government, you might wonder what Shepard’s position is on the national debt and the fiat currency that is produced at a prodigious rate by the Federal Reserve. After reading this book, I am left wondering the same thing, as neither the debt or the Fed is mentioned even once! Having strong opinions on US federal government reform but not on the Federal Reserve is like having strong opinions on National Socialism but not genocide. They are essentially synonymous and your discomfort over that fact does nothing to alter it.

There’s countless other half-baked, pie-in-the-sky nonsense throughout the book and never once is shrinking the power of the huge, bloated, bankrupt (monetarily and morally) monopoly on legal violence known as the US government ever entertained. The mismanagement of everything from healthcare to education is discussed but firing the management (i.e.: the state) from the execrable job they’ve done is unthinkable. Indeed, the government just needs more power and money, since they currently have so little of either. Just put a prettier shade of lipstick on the pig.

The epilogue talks about a conversation that the author had with a conservative where the two of them agree on basically everything and the author is left wondering: “Why are we so divided if ‘both sides’ agree on everything?” Well, Mr. Shepard (and everyone else who hasn’t figured this out yet), here’s the simple answer: it’s not a question of right vs. left, it’s a question of tyranny vs. liberty or, if you prefer, government vs. the ordinary person. When the government a) controls literally every aspect of your life (or at least tries to) and b) has deliberately convinced you that the government (or, at least, your favorite half of the government) is the only solution to your problems, then you will viciously fight for your team against the other team to dominate rather than be dominated. When one looks at the problem that way, it becomes obvious that making the government as irrelevant to ordinary peoples’ lives as possible is the only real solution. Sadly, books like this one are evidence that this solution is heresy to the religion of the state, which has many, many defenders like Shepard.

There’s also a reality show script in the back of the book about how Navy SEALs should kidnap North Koreans and take them to the USA, where they can go shopping and sight-seeing for a while before being returned to North Korea. I’m not sure why this script was included at all (is this supposed to be a “coming soon from the author” blurb? It seems very awkwardly out of place in context with the rest of the book). The only thing more immoral than kidnapping North Koreans, to my way of thinking, would be to briefly immerse them in Western culture and then send them home again! Shepard has a very casual approval of state-sponsored violence, typical of those who have no first-hand experience with actual violence (in the main story, the President’s Secret Service bodyguard is introduced as a former cop who the reader is supposed to fall in love with after the cop beats information out of a handcuffed suspect who demands a lawyer when he’s being arrested). The president also briefly talks about sending military bombers over North Korea and dropping food and other consumer goods to the population there. This reveals an absolutely infantile level of understanding of foreign nations and the realities of how they would react to their airspace being violated. Don’t let that stop you from having strong opinions on the topic though, I guess.

If you’re a fan of Chomsky’s “lively debate within a limited spectrum” (and believe that the US government should define that spectrum), then you’ll probably find this book very “thought”-provoking. If you’re interested in real change for the betterment of individuals’ lives, then this book will serve only to infuriate (if you’re principled and well-informed) or obfuscate (if you’re still searching for answers).

[Lana Humphress · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes you Think. "what if we could"

This book was brought to my attention by Mike Rowe after. Reading his "page 41" excerpt, my interest was at full alert. The thoughts that Dr. Stephens makes you think or wish that our Government could be if they just said WHY are we doing this and How CAN it make life in AMERICA BETTER for everyone... A GOOD READ FOR ALL

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me of a movie, I think called "Dave", about a guy who is identical in appearance to a disabled president. In that movie, the "deep state" enlists Dave to pose as the Pres, and liberal dreams take flight. Which, I'm definitely in that camp and loved the movie even though it was utter fantasy.

This book is basically a campaign publication for a presidential campaign. The "Flux Reversal" that is the central conceit of the story is 1.5 clever. Which is to say, too clever by half. The first half of the book, laying out how the protagonist started on the fictional book project, was engaging. The second half is just the campaign publication that I mentioned at the outset of this graf. Pretending to be a conversation set at a great house in fine nature, with a Teddy Bear secret service agent in a starring role.

Plus enough "tough broad" tropes to describe the female 47th president that they become condescending.

No spoilers here, but the very small romantic denouement in the epilogue was tritely predictable.

Finally, oddly compelling for some odd reason. As in the way that Tom Clancy is oddly compelling though utterly trash writing. This book is not utterly trash writing, but the "tone" (I don't know how else to describe the language) reminded me of the long-ago Ton Clancy novels that I've read.

[Lynn Moomin]

An UNEXPECTEDLY Emotional Read!

I first learned about this book through a video post by Mike Rowe. It made me intensely curious as to how he could be selected to serve as a Cabinet member, even in a fictional book. It intrigued me!!
I was amazingly surprised to find myself quite tearful in some sections. The potential for "fixing" America is right there. This could actually be considered a blueprint to start a positive change and reunite this country, maybe even make it as great as it was. There's too much divisiveness, and it could be fi Ed, if citizens would just try.
I highly recommend reading it if you care at all about how this nation can improve, and trust me I'm not a political person. This isn't really a political book, it struck me as an exercise in what COULD be done. Incredible!

[Elroy Ebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just my opinion

I thoroughly enjoyed the writer's storytelling. His ideas were optimal and could be used today. The downside, again, in my opinion, was his complaints against President Trump and his praise of President Biden. But that is his right according to our constitution. I too believe we should use what if questions to better our country. But throwing open our borders for all to enter without going through a process is asinine and dangerous. A very informative read.

[Hannnah S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this book more of a 3.75 to be honest. I enjoyed the story it told and the way that it was presented. However for the most part it was pretty predictable and at times saccharine. Despite that I think it provides a lot to think about in regards to the current state of the United States.

[Quinton Guillaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book. Even though it's fictional, it does lean into politics. It makes the democrats look like hero's solving the nations problems. The President appointed a republican VP, but never used him in problem solving exercises. Idealistically what was written needs to happen, but never will. A good read anyway.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard about this book from Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy. He did a Facebook video on the fact that he is one of the characters in this book and that intrigued me. I really liked the story, the premise and the characters.

[Cindy Latella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good...posited a lot of things that could be if our approach to running our country changed. A little bit of political bias but not too much. Was a book to make you think about things long after you were done reading it.

[Ken Biltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read

This was a well written and very interesting story. I just wish every politician would pick it up and learn a few things and help make this a great country again. We’ve been falling a looooong time.

[Donald Collings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chocked full of great leadership approaches

I heard Mike Rowe read a few pages and it sounded interesting. It was. The president surrounded herself with some real life character s, with an eye toward getting great ideas from those that have walked the walk.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the book, a lot of great ideas. Would be great now if the different sides worked together to come to a beneficial agreement for all, instead of just sticking far left or far right and thinking what's best for my party. One can dream, maybe we'll get there again someday.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about this book by Mike Rowe who mentioned it online show, DIRTY JOBS. There was some good policies that were mentioned in this book. I can't help but wonder if they were implemented if the nation would benefit by the use of them. This was a great read.

[Tammy Barger · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only ...

There's truth in this book that, as Americans, we need to realize, tap into and bring to fruition. We are responsible for making our country a better place for all Americans.

[Neil Fidler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book as Mike Rowe mentioned it on his social media sites. It's a decent read, but have to agree with others here that the book leans too left for me.

[Nathan Hartsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Commons Sense - If only we had some

Love this book. Wish it was reality instead of fiction. If more people looked at the world this way we’d all be better off.

[Erin H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take on what it may be like to have a female president who ignores party lines, attacks the big issues all while having a major geophysical event occur.

[Steve359 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I thought it was going to be. Sadly disapointed.