"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."
"A BOOK TWENTY FIVE YEARS IN THE MAKING.....A STORY TOLD ACROSS TWO DECADES......
Described as 'beautiful, evocative writing' and 'an enchanting tale' Prior Regrets tells the story of Mark Prior and Lauren Tesairi, and their attempts to navigate the hectic streets of Jerusalem, the varied characters who call North London home, and shared memories, faded by time.
Eighteen years after their last contact, a lonely goodbye in a crumbling hostel, Lauren's unexpected message resurrected long dormant memories for Mark. At first he could barely recall their three heady months together; young backpackers, discovering Jerusalem and each other through a haze of Sinai hash, Arabic blues and naïve, youthful ambitions. But the secrets she revealed when they reconnected, secrets hidden for two decades, brought them all back, the dreams, the innocence, and the regrets. Now, despite a contented life with a wife and two sons, could he recapture that time? And could he change her bleak future?'"
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