Synopses & Reviews
Instant New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
Authors Round the South Bestseller
Midwester Indie Bestseller
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American dema-gogue possible.
The story of Donald Trump's rise to power is the story of a buried American history — buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt.
Sarah Kendzior's Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy — how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.
In Kendzior's signature and celebrated style, she expertly outlines Trump's meteoric rise from the 1980s until today, interlinking key moments of his life with the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of our civil liberties by foreign powers. Kendzior also offers a never-before-seen look at her lifelong tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time — living in New York through 9/11 and in St. Louis during the Ferguson uprising, and researching media and authoritarianism when Trump emerged using the same tactics as the post-Soviet dictatorships she had long studied.
It is a terrible feeling to sense a threat coming, but it is worse when we let apathy, doubt, and fear prevent us from preparing ourselves. Hiding in Plain Sight confronts the injustice we have too long ignored because the truth is the only way forward.
Review
"Hiding in Plain Sight isn't just about Trump, but about how crumbling democracies intent on rolling back the freedoms of its citizens create perfect conditions for the rise of dangerous autocrats." Bitch Magazine, 2020 Nonfiction Preview
Review
"Sarah Kendzior, in her brilliant new book, is one of the few journalists who grasps what is happening. Kendzior is a student of autocracy...she has been warning from the get-go that Trump is working to turn America into one." David Cay Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of It's Even Worse Than You Think and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist
Review
"[Kendzior's] book documents Trump's 'decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy.' I recommend it, especially if you have any doubt about what's at stake in this year's presidential election." Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author of forthcoming novel The Daughters of Erietown
About the Author
Sarah Kendzior is best known for her reporting on St. Louis and the 2016 election, her academic research on authoritarian states, and her New York Times bestselling debut The View from Flyover Country. She is a co-host of the podcast Gaslit Nation and was named one of Foreign Policy's "100 people you should be following on Twitter to make sense of global events." Her reporting has been featured in Politico, The Atlantic, Fast Company, The New York Times, Globe and Mail, and more. She lives in St. Louis.