What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era
Carlos Lozada
(Author)
Christian Barillas
(Read by)
Description
The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic uses the books of the Trump era to argue that our response to this presidency reflects the same failures of imagination that made it possible. As a book critic for The Washington Post, Carlos Lozada has read some 150 volumes claiming to diagnose why Trump was elected and what his presidency reveals about our nation. Many of these, he's found, are more defensive than incisive, more righteous than right. In What Were We Thinking, Lozada uses these books to tell the story of how we understand ourselves in the Trump era, using as his main characters the political ideas and debates at play in America today. He dissects works on the white working class like Hillbilly Elegy; manifestos from the anti-Trump resistance like On Tyranny and No Is Not Enough; books on race, gender, and identity like How to Be an Antiracist and Good and Mad; polemics on the future of the conservative movement like The Corrosion of Conservatism; and of course plenty of books about Trump himself. Lozada's argument is provocative: that many of these books--whether written by liberals or conservatives, activists or academics, Trump's true believers or his harshest critics--are vulnerable to the same blind spots, resentments, and failures that gave us his presidency. But Lozada also highlights the books that succeed in illuminating how America is changing in the 21st century. What Were We Thinking is an intellectual history of the Trump era in real time, helping us transcend the battles of the moment and see ourselves for who we really are.
Product Details
Price
$34.99
$32.54
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Audio
Publish Date
October 06, 2020
Dimensions
5.8 X 5.6 X 1.1 inches | 0.25 pounds
Language
English
Type
Compact Disc
EAN/UPC
9781797118437
BISAC Categories:
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Carlos Lozada is an opinion columnist at The New York Times and cohost of the Matter of Opinion podcast. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism and is the author of What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era and The Washington Book.
Christian Barillas is an Audie-nominated audiobook narrator and actor whose television credits include Modern Family, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Bridge. With a classical background in theater, he has appeared on stage at the Huntington Theatre Co., the Denver Center, and the Yale Repertory. He studied journalism and media at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and went on to receive his master's degree in acting from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television.