The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself - the history behind Trump and JD Vance

by Nick Bryant

Overview

'This is a must read book for all those who love America and want it to be healed.' — Justin Webb, presenter of the BBC's Today programme and Americast

'Unflinching and insightful.' — Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent

'A perceptive look at America's unresolved history.' — Kirkus Reviews

'Extraordinary...it's enlarged my understanding of America.' — Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live

From the author of When America Stopped Being Great, an insightful and urgent reassessment of America's past, present and future – as a country which is forever at war with itself.

The Forever War tells the story of how America's extreme polarization is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled and unresolved past.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now the country's defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the prosecution of Donald Trump and battles over gun rights and abortion raise the spectre of further political violence.

Nick Bryant explains how the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America's story. Combining brilliant storytelling, historical research and first-hand reportage, Bryant argues that insurrections, massacres and civil disturbances should sadly not be seen as abnormalities; they are a part of the fabric of the history of America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399409308
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	55,450
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nick Bryant is the author of When America Stopped Being Great, a book that Joe Biden keeps in the Oval Office. He was formerly one of the BBC's most senior foreign correspondents, with postings in Washington DC, New York, South Asia and Australia. After covering the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he left the BBC in 2021, and now lives in Sydney with his wife and children. Nick studied history at Cambridge and has a doctorate in American history from Oxford.

Table of Contents

Prologue: 'Democracy has prevailed'

Introduction: Escaping Camelot

1 The strange career of American democracy

2 From July 4th to January 6th

3 The demagogic style in American politics

4 American authoritarianism

5 1776 and all that...

6 America's constant curse

7 In Guns We Trust

8 Roe, Wade and the Supremes

9 Toxic exceptionalism

10 The Two Americas

Afterword: Goodbye America

Acknowledgements

Notes

Index

Note on the Author

Note on the Type

Editorial Reviews

Bryant writes with the familiarity of a journalist who has spent decades living in the US but also with the outsider's capacity for detachment and irony. This is the must-read book about America for 2024.” —Professor Adam Smith, Director of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford

“It's a superb achievement. And as the American people face one of the most crucial elections in their history, nobody with the slightest interest in their future can afford to miss it.” —Dominic Sandbrook, author and historian

“Just brilliant...timely to say the least. Extraordinary...it's enlarged my understanding of America.” —Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live

“America's story rewritten with remarkable authority and affection. Unflinching and insightful. A great achievement.” —Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent

“Bryant is a genuine rarity, a Brit who understands America.” —Washington Post

“Nick Bryant combines wisdom with humour - this is a must-read book for all those who love America and want it to be healed.” —Justin Webb, presenter of the BBC's Today programme and Americast

“A must-read book by one of the sharpest observers of American strife. There is a reason presidents read [Nick Bryant] - he is the outsider who observes and writes with clarity and perspective where others see just chaos and confusion.” —Robert Moore, ITV foreign correspondent, Twitter/X

“What is going to be regarded as one of the greatest pieces of political analysis regarding American history ever...An outstanding job.” —Justin Pereira, Twitter/X

“A sharp study of the endemic battles that have blighted the U.S. throughout its existence. A perceptive look at America's unresolved history. ” —Kirkus Reviews

“Read The Forever War. It's well-written and timely.” —Counterpunch

“The Forever War is an essential read. Bryant's blend of rigorous reporting and thoughtful analysis makes this book a standout addition to contemporary political literature.” —Amazon 5 star review

“Has Bryant offered the best recent book by a foreign observer (who now watches the conflict from Sydney) of where America is at? Possibly. The quality of his writing (high), his long experience of the United States (varied), and his moral investment in its success (reassuring), certainly place him in the top ten. Paired with his When America Stopped Being Great (2020), Bryant has offered us two books of sustained arguments about US failure.

Bryant has written an excellent account of how American history informs its present and why history wars, fought by the mobilised ignorant, might mar its future.” —Australian Review of Books

“One of the most important aspects of Bryant's work is its unflinching self-reflection. What sets his book apart from so much contemporary analysis is its recognition of the continual pull of “self-validating folklore”, even as it simultaneously recognises that pull – and insists on resisting it…Bryant's work of history is as unflinching as it is accessible.” —The Conversation

“An unflinching and accessible history of the US.” —Morning Star

“[It is] this fusion of journalistic elan and academic rigour in [Nick Bryant's] writing that makes his books so very readable. The Forever War is a splendid addition to the Bryant canon. [He] brings a close understanding and familiarity with the United States and its way of being.” —Reaction

From the Publisher

2024-04-04
A sharp study of the endemic battles that have blighted the U.S. throughout its existence.

In this follow-up to When America Stopped Being Great, British journalist Bryant, a former BBC senior foreign correspondent, considers the long history of political upheaval, domestic terrorism, vicious campaigns, armed rebellions, riots, assassinations, and assassination attempts that have beset a nation he once revered. Recounting battles over voting rights, gun rights, and abortion and the terrorism perpetrated by left-wing rebels like the Weather Underground, right-wing white supremacists, and militia groups, Bryant gives ample evidence for his assertion that “division has always been the default setting” for the nation since it was founded. The insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, he contends, was no outlier but instead a direct echo of July 4, 1776. The colonies’ rebellion for independence instilled “the mutinous belief that political violence directed against the government is justifiable, historically legitimate, and endorsed by the Founding Fathers.” Although it’s been said that “Trump did not change the modern-day Republican Party, he simply revealed it,” Bryant adds that “the same could be said of American political violence.” Nor is Trump the only example of a demagogue pushing the boundaries of the presidency. “Americans,” Bryant writes, “have long had a weakness for conviction politicians who speak with the certainty of prophets.” Even John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama benefited from a predilection to “laud, lionize, and idolize.” Bryant paints a dismaying portrait of a nation with “a deep-rooted suspicion of central government; a collective sense of victimhood; an ugly nativism, racism and hostility towards the other; an anti-intellectualism; an anti-elitism; a populist anti-capitalism; a nostalgic nationalism”; and a deep-seated rage. Even in the 1950s and ’60s, mythologized “as a haven of suburban tranquility,” the country “was awash with guns.”

A perceptive look at America’s unresolved history.

Kirkus Reviews