A well-researched, proactive guidebook for defeating Trumpism.
Fish and Aghaie chart a path to defeating Trumpism in this nonfiction book.
On November 9, 2016, Fish recalls following the news of Donald Trump’s presidential victory: “I collapsed onto the couch, spent and dejected.” His wife, co-author Aghaie, reminded him that his “life’s work has been the study of democracy” in faraway places as a political scientist whose research had brought him to the front line of Ukrainian coal workers’ strikes, Solidarity-infused church services in communist Poland, and whispered interviews in dictatorial Uzbekistan—and that he now had “the responsibility, the privilege, of fighting for democracy” in his home country. The book begins with a somber introductory piece, “Democracy on the Line,” that surveys the state of the contemporary Republican Party. The authors’ cogent analysis argues that ideological conservatism in itself is not a threat, noting that Republicans from Ronald Reagan to John McCain were “far more consistent God-and-country conservative than Trump” in their tax policies, spending on social programs, and skepticism of big government. Ironically, per the book, many “genuine conservatives,” such as David Brooks and Tom Nichols, have left Republican ranks as the party has fallen under the spell of authoritarian Trumpism. Beyond the scathing introductory survey of Trump’s grip on the Republican establishment, the book focuses on the Democratic Party’s tepid response, which has been unable to mount a compelling countermovement to rid American politics of, in the authors’ view, the xenophobic, violent, and antidemocratic ethos of Trump.
Divided into four parts, the book first surveys today’s politics, rejecting common myths that dominate the “Standard Story” of contemporary narratives with chapters that argue that fears of economic decline or constitutional flaws like the Electoral College are not to blame for our democratic crisis. Part two explores the Republican obsession with “a high-dominance political style” (exemplified by their glee when Trump “owns the libs”) that, per the authors, thrives on divisive rhetoric, eschews compromise, and normalizes coercion and cruelty. This approach is contrasted with, in the authors’ estimation, the ineffective, low-dominance style deployed by Democrats, whose “pathologically risk-averse and poll-driven” approach means that they refuse to meaningfully engage with any politically difficult, hot-button issues (aside from abortion). Fish and Aghaie assert that, for many Americans who don’t closely follow politics, it’s difficult to see the Democratic Party as a vibrant, fresh, and determined alternative. Part three of the book centers on the necessity of Democrats to retake the mantle of patriotism from Republicans by championing a “National-Democratic Narrative” that juxtaposes American democracy against the authoritarian, nativist rhetoric of Trumpism. The book concludes with a collection of historical vignettes and primary source excerpts written by America’s greatest prodemocratic voices, reminding readers that a central aspect of U.S. history has been the expansion of democracy at both the grassroots and national levels. Those profiled include Black activists like Frederick Douglass and Mary McLeod Bethune (whose acclaimed 1939 speech, “What American Democracy Means to Me,” concludes the book) and U.S. presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, whose eloquent defenses of democracy stand in stark contrast to Trump’s actions. A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Fish displays his academic bona fides with almost 400 scholarly endnotes, while Aghaie’s background as an educational consultant for community-based organizations informs the book’s accessible, grounded writing style.
A well-researched, proactive guidebook for defeating Trumpism.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781953943538
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Rivertowns Books
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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