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Behold, America Sarah Churchwell

Behold, America By Sarah Churchwell

Behold, America by Sarah Churchwell

Reviews:
$23.99
Condition - Very Good
Only 1 left
Very Good

Behold, America Summary

Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream by Sarah Churchwell

A GUARDIAN AND A SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND I-PAPER SUMMER READ 'Enormously entertaining' Sunday Times 'Fascinating' New Statesman 'An enthralling book' Guardian The American dream is dead, Donald Trump said when announcing his candidacy for president in 2015. How would he revive it? By putting America First. The American Dream and America First are two of the most loaded phrases in America today, and also two of the most misunderstood. The American Dream began as a pledge for equality rather than as a dream of supremacy and making it big. America First has not just served as an isolationist term, but as an early slogan of the Ku Klux Klan with surprising links to the present. In 1927, a KKK riot led to the arrest of seven men among them a certain Fred C. Trump. Both phrases were born nearly a century ago and instantly tangled over capitalism, democracy and race, coming to embody opposing views in the battle to define the soul of the nation. Behold, America recounts the unknown history of these two expressions using the voices that helped shape that debate, from Capitol Hill to the newsroom of the New York Times, students to senators, dreamers to dissenters. As America struggles again to project a shared vision, to itself and to the world, Sarah Churchwell argues that the meanings and history of these terms need to be understood afresh so that the true spirit of America can be reclaimed. Insightful and revelatory, Behold, America overturns everything we thought we knew about the American dream, America First and the battle for the identity of modern America.

Behold, America Reviews

A ripping yarn ... Behold, America is an enthralling book ... Passionate, well-researched and comprehensive * Guardian *
Excoriating, brilliant -- Ali Smith * Big Issue, Summer Reads *
Enormously entertaining. Churchwell is a careful and sensitive reader, writes with great vigour and has a magpies eye for a revealing story -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *
A fascinating history of the two intersecting tropes of modern America * New Statesman *
Lively and eminently readable Churchwell has produced a timely and clearly argued book that makes a clear case for the intellectual parallels between the first third of the 20th century and our own * Financial Times *
[An] enlightening new cultural history The shadow of the 45th President hangs over all 300 pages of Behold, America, a book designed expressly to demonstrate just how that history rhymes with the present While it is indeed a history of two phrases, Behold, America is also a history of the people who used them An American in the UK, [Churchwell] has the benefit of an outside perspective on the country of her birth, which is prone to national self-delusions just as grand as Britains, if not more so. Behold, America punctures many of them * The i *
The Trump administration has prompted a veritable landslide of books about the current state of US culture and politics. Literary journalist and professor Sarah Churchwell digs a little deeper than most, providing a thoughtful long view on a highly topical subject * BBC History Magazine, Summer Reads *
This is a timely book. Its also a provocative one. In addition to offering some historical perspective, Churchwell has a point to make Shes an elegant writer, and when America First and the American dream come head-to-head in her book during the run-up to World War II, the unexpected (and alarming) historical coincidence begin to resonate * New York Times Book Review *
Churchwell takes us on a whirlwind tour of the first decades of the 20th century We hear the discordant voices of American reformers, immigrants, reactionaries and nativists, satirists and polemicists, Ku Klux Klansmen and ersatz Hitlers Churchwell is well attuned to the nuances of the national conversation * Literary Review *
The figure of Donald Trump looms over Sarah Churchwells new history of American national identity, which highlights the ugliest features of the countrys ingrained traditions of intolerance and bigotry. But it is the current presidents father, Fred, who first leaps off the page in a startling cameo appearance ... Churchwell is at her best when she relates in horrific detail the once commonplace public lynching of blacks, both in the North and in the South, and she is astute about the crackpot/booster strains in American culture * Spectator *
Churchwells thorough, fascinating history of the birth of the America First movement uses the past to throw disturbing light on present-day politics in the US -- What to read in 2018 * i *
Churchwells thoroughness in delineating Americas decade-by-decade bigotry through primary sources from speeches to newspapers to novels is a marvel. But it is more than a history lesson. Shes constructing the case for how the US elected Donald Trump, a catastrophe many of us struggle to understand * Prospect Magazine *

About Sarah Churchwell

Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Her literary journalism has appeared widely in newspapers and she comments regularly on arts, culture, and politics for television and radio. She lives in London.

Additional information

GOR009871124
9781526601131
1526601133
Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream by Sarah Churchwell
Sarah Churchwell
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2018-05-03
384
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Behold, America