Synopses & Reviews
American history is ubiquitous, underscoring everything from food to travel to architecture and design. It is also emotionally charged, frequently crossing paths with political and legal issues. In Remembering America, Lawrence R. Samuel examines the place that American history has occupied within education and popular culture and how it has continually shaped and reflected our cultural values and national identity. The story of American history, Samuel explains, is not a straight line but rather one filled with twists and turns and ups and downs, its narrative path as winding as that of the United States as a whole. Organized around six distinct eras of American history ranging from the 1920s to the present, Samuel shows that our understanding of American history has often generated struggle and contention as ideologically opposed groups battled over ownership of the past. As women and minorities gained greater power and a louder voice in the national conversation, our perspectives on American history became significantly more multicultural, bringing race, gender, and class issues to the forefront. These new interpretations of our history helped to reshape our identity on both a national and an individual level. Samuel argues that the fight for ownership of our past, combined with how those owners have imparted history to our youth, crucially affects who we are. Our interpretation and expression of our country’s past reflects how that self-identity has changed over the last one hundred years and created a strong sense of our collective history—one of the few things Americans all have in common.
Review
"[An] ingenious account of how free nations faced seven international crises from 1918 to 2008. . . . Runciman concludes that democracy will probably survive, having made a delightfully stimulating, if counterintuitive case, that the unnerving tendency of democracies to stumble into crises is matched by their knack for getting out of them."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"[B]rilliantly and convincingly delivered. The big story of mature democracies in crisis is told with remarkable confidence and brio. Runciman writes lucidly and compellingly: this is a book that you cannot put down."--Georgios Varouxakis, Standpoint
Review
"As a corrective to the doom-and-gloomsters, this book makes some telling points, and he is a clear and forceful writer. . . . What Runciman's focus on American democracy helps to do is to remind us that there is an international dimension to this subject that is closely connected to American self-perceptions."--Mark Mazower, Financial Times
Review
"Runciman's writing, often brilliantly aphoristic, is full of insights, opinions, and phrasings that will challenge and delight scholars and general readers both."--Robert Nardini, Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to. . . . [H]e argues lucidly, persuasively, even exhilaratingly at times. The nightly news will never appear exactly the same again."--Miriam Cosic, Australian
Review
"[Runciman] is a trenchant commentator on current affairs and a historian of political thought who, in his books and his articles in the London Review of Books, has revealed himself to be a gifted explainer. . . . [H]e has a canny sense of how political power operates at its highest levels and in his exposition of political theory he is unfailingly clear and direct. Runciman's prose is conversational, if elegantly so--it is no surprise that he is a fluent lecturer--and characterised by a wry restraint."--Daniel Cohen, Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
"[E]xcellent and interesting. . . . [A]dmirable and very well written."--Chris Patten, Tablet
Review
"Runciman is a good writer and brave pioneer. . . . The picture he sketches is agreeably bold."--John Keane, Sydney Morning Herald
Review
"His rich and refreshing book will be of intense interest to anyone puzzled by the near paralysis that seems to afflict democratic government in a number of countries, not least the United States. Runciman's account of the workings of the confidence trap--the belief that democracy will always survive--will serve as an antidote to the moods of alarm and triumph by which writers on democracy are regularly seized."--John Gray, New York Review of Books
Review
"Runciman's book abounds with fresh insights, arresting paradoxes, and new ways of posing old problems. It is part intellectual history, an absorbing study of the modern debate on democracy through the contrasting perspectives of key public intellectuals, such as Walter Lippmann, George F. Kennan, Francis Fukuyama and Friedrich Hayek, and part analysis of the problem of political leadership in democracies, explored through the decisions taken by leaders, particularly US presidents, and the constraints under which they operate."--Andrew Gamble, Times Literary Supplement
Review
"If you think American democracy doesn't work these days, you have to read this well-written book."--Fareed Zakaria
Review
"[A] historically sensitive and subtle response to the democratic crisis."--Thomas Meaney and Yascha Mounk, The Nation
Review
"What we get here is good history. The events at the seven junctures are presented in a way that is learned, concise and informative."--Stein Ringen, International Affairs
Review
"Runciman is skilled at bringing important political questions 'out of the clouds' and presenting them in a manner that is clear, engaging, and approachable. . . . This is an extraordinarily well-written and engaging book that asks important questions about structural strengths and weaknesses of democratic governance."--Choice
Review
andldquo;There have been books before on the history of the American Socialist Party, but none that I know of takes the story from the partyandrsquo;s roots in the late nineteenth century through its devolution after World War II into Michael Harringtonandrsquo;s Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the proto-conservative Social Democrats USA. Ross tries to answer the difficult question of why the American Socialists never became a major party, providing an important history not only of the American left but of the right as well.andrdquo;andmdash;John B. Judis, senior writer for theand#160;National Journal
Review
andldquo;Jack Ross has performed a prodigious and provocative feat of recovery and historical interpretation. In Rossandrsquo;s telling, the Socialist Party of America is not just a dreary dress rehearsal for Cold War liberalism or neoconservatism but rather, at its best, a living, breathing embodiment of populist American radicalism.andrdquo;andmdash;Bill Kauffman, author of Ainandrsquo;t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism
Review
andldquo;Not only does Jack Ross cover the history of the [Socialist Party of America] and its leading adherents, he also offers an analysis of socialismandrsquo;s rise, decline, and persistence as a marginal movement in the United States that is more complete and original than that of any other scholars of the political left. . . . This history deserves the attention and respect of every reader.andrdquo;andmdash;Melvyn Dubofsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history and sociology at Binghamton University, SUNY, and coauthor of John L. Lewis: A Biography
Review
One of The Guardian's Readers' Books of the Year for 2014
Review
One of The Guardians Readers Books of the Year for 2014
Review
“In this intriguing book, Lawrence R. Samuel illuminates how Americans have told and understood their history, and why it matters. He shows how that story has changed over time and why the telling of our past is so intensely debated in the present. A great read on a vitally important topic.”—Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
Review
“Lawrence Samuel has written an engaging and original cultural history of U.S. history itself in which he makes a compelling case for the continuing importance of American history in American life. Although Americans are a notoriously forward-looking people, Samuel demonstrates just how deeply invested we are in the past. . . . He shows us arguing, often passionately, about the past precisely because history is so central to our identity, both individually and collectively.”—M. Todd Bennett, author of One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II
Review
“Remembering America is a stimulating and revealing reference for the scholar, educator, and student of the American historical past. Excluding nothing from his purview, Lawrence R. Samuel enlivens and expands the boundaries of historiographical inquiry with a rare gift for wide-ranging cultural observation and analysis distinguished by a pop sensibility.”—William Bird, curator, Division of Political History, Smithsonian Institution
Synopsis
Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008.
A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama.
The Confidence Trap shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them--and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything--a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
Synopsis
"Imaginative and entirely original. I've not read anything remotely like it."--Alan Ryan, author of
On Politics"Rivetingly written for a wide audience, this is David Runciman's best and most original book to date--bold, clear, astonishingly well informed, and consistently excellent. His ecumenical curiosity is as engaging as it is disarming, pulling you into a history that is effortless to read and leaves you thinking about its insights long after you put it down."--Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory
Synopsis
"In this book, David Runciman emerges as the most original guide we have to democracy's global prospects in the twenty-first century."
--Melissa Lane, Princeton University"The Confidence Trap's engrossing analytical history illuminates democracy's deepening achievements and recurring crises during the charged past century. By incisively interpreting these moments of unsettled apprehension and by tracking patterns of coping and surviving, this rich, important book helps us understand, and perhaps even navigate, present anxieties about the capacity of democracies to grapple with the big issues of economics, geopolitics, and the environment."--Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
"Rivetingly written for a wide audience, this is David Runciman's best and most original book to date--bold, clear, astonishingly well informed, and consistently excellent. His ecumenical curiosity is as engaging as it is disarming, pulling you into a history that is effortless to read and leaves you thinking about its insights long after you put it down."--Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory
"Imaginative and entirely original. I've not read anything remotely like it."--Alan Ryan, author of On Politics
Synopsis
At a time when the word and#8220;socialistand#8221; is but one of numerous political epithets that are generally divorced from the historical context of Americaand#8217;s political history, The Socialist Party of America presents a new, mature understanding of Americaand#8217;s most important minor political party of the twentieth century. From the partyand#8217;s origins in the labor and populist movements at the end of the nineteenth century, to its heyday with the charismatic Eugene V. Debs, and to its persistence through the Depression and the Second World War under the steady leadership of and#8220;Americaand#8217;s conscience,and#8221; Norman Thomas, The Socialist Party of America guides readers through the partyand#8217;s twilight, ultimate demise, and the successor groups that arose following its collapse.
Based on archival research, Jack Rossand#8217;s study challenges the orthodoxies of both sides of the historiographical debate as well as assumptions about the Socialist Party in historical memory. Ross similarly covers the related emergence of neoconservatism and other facets of contemporary American politics and assesses some of the more sensational charges from the right about contemporary liberalism and the and#8220;radicalismand#8221; of Barack Obama.
About the Author
Jack Ross is a freelance editor and independent historian in Brooklyn, New York. His work has appeared in the American Conservative, Tikkun, the Mitrailleuse, Daily Caller, Mondoweiss, and Antiwar.com. He is the author of Rabbi Outcast: Elmer Berger and American Jewish Anti-Zionism (Potomac, 2011).and#160;and#160;
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Introduction: Tocqueville: Democracy and Crisis 1
Chapter 1 1918: False Dawn 35
Chapter 2 1933: Fear Itself 76
Chapter 3 1947: Trying Again 111
Chapter 4 1962: On the Brink 145
Chapter 5 1974: Crisis of Confidence 184
Chapter 6 1989: The End of History 225
Chapter 7 2008: Back to the Future 263
Epilogue The Confidence Trap 293
Acknowledgments 327
Notes 329
Bibliography 345Index 369