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The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself – the history behind Trump and JD Vance
The Forever War tells the story of how America's political polarization is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled past.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now its defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the increasing spotlight on Second Amendment rights raise the specter of further political violence, and even the possibility of a second civil war.
Nick Bryant argues that the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America's story. Combining brilliant storytelling with historical research, Bryant argues that insurrections, assassinations and massacres – from the American Civil War through to JFK and the inner city race riots of the late '60s, up to the more recent high school shootings and the murder of George Floyd – should sadly not be seen as abnormalities; in fact they are a part of the fabric of the history of America.
The compromises originally designed to hold the union together – the Amendments made in the Reconstruction era to give rights back to former slaves, the apportionment of political power – have never truly been resolved. Today, a country that looked confidently to the future has become captive to its contentious past.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now its defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the increasing spotlight on Second Amendment rights raise the specter of further political violence, and even the possibility of a second civil war.
Nick Bryant argues that the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America's story. Combining brilliant storytelling with historical research, Bryant argues that insurrections, assassinations and massacres – from the American Civil War through to JFK and the inner city race riots of the late '60s, up to the more recent high school shootings and the murder of George Floyd – should sadly not be seen as abnormalities; in fact they are a part of the fabric of the history of America.
The compromises originally designed to hold the union together – the Amendments made in the Reconstruction era to give rights back to former slaves, the apportionment of political power – have never truly been resolved. Today, a country that looked confidently to the future has become captive to its contentious past.
368 pages, Paperback
Published November 4, 2025
216 people are currently reading
1021 people want to read
About the author
Nick Bryant
15 books102 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
September 22, 2024
5★
“In the telling of the American story, acts like Kennedy’s assassination have been treated as abnormalities, a tendency that obscures the reality that they are more reflective of normalcy.”
’Twas ever thus is my short summary of what Bryant explains in interesting and well-researched detail with historical timelines, quotations, anecdotes, and countless examples. I don’t think there’s a decade he’s missed or a stone he’s left unturned since long before the pilgrims landed in 1620.
“So much of our understanding of America is based on false narratives and self-validating folklore. In pausing to consider how millions of Americans have come to embrace an alternative reality about the here and now, we need also to reflect on the effect of manufacturing such a mythic past.”
I’m no expert, but I am a reasonably well-informed bystander, and the pages of footnotes and references, as well as an index, are the mark of someone who hasn’t just written a slick memoir. This is history, and he makes it easy to fact-check him if you want to.
But there’s nothing dry and text-book dull about it. Bryant was born and raised in the UK, was a BBC journalist and foreign correspondent for years, and now lives in Sydney, Australia, with his family. He left not long after Trump took office. He knows how to tell (and sell) a story and keep you reading.
I will admit that if it was a part of history I was already pretty familiar with, I skimmed. A few examples.
* I know there have been assassination attempts on many presidents.
* I know the Constitution was set up by influential white male landowners to restrict votes and powers to their class. They wanted a new world aristocracy - men like themselves. - not a democracy.
* I understand (more or less!) how the Electoral College was established for much the same reason, which was that the votes of educated white men of influence (generally landholders) should outweigh those of the general public.
As Bryant puts it: “The Electoral College, the mechanism for electing the president, also served as a firewall against the popular will.”
[Note: We saw that most recently in the presidential elections of Gore v. Bush (2000) and Clinton v. Trump (2016) where the first candidate mentioned had more popular votes overall, but the Electoral College, (where each state decides how its voters' votes will be apportioned to the “Electors”) swung the majority to the second-placed candidate, allowing them to win.
* I know that the leading cause of deaths in children is from guns, the highest proportion of victims being children of colour.
* I know some things but not nearly enough. And knowing it doesn’t make me feel any better, nor, I realise, does it make Nick Bryant feel any better. As his children were growing up, the reality of living in New York hit pretty hard. No school is safe.
“Drills were scheduled every few months or so, a classroom ritual which involved locking the door, pulling down the blinds, turning off the lights and crouching under desks. Our children had been conducting them since the age of three, treating them like a game of hide and seek in which they remained motionless and mute. As they moved from kindergarten into elementary school, teachers told them they were rehearsing for a hurricane. Yet the threat came, of course, from a hail of bullets.”
I hope this is widely read and discussed. President Joe Biden has Bryant’s previous book When America Stopped Being Great -A History of the Present on his bookshelf in the Oval Office. The author has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford – the guy knows his stuff.
It is comprehensive, clear, understandable, and a good read. To give you an idea of what he covers, here are the chapter titles.
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
As Bryant says, there is a folkloric myth of what America used to be. I often say that many of us are nostalgic for a past that never really was.
I haven’t read the book on President Biden’s shelf (yet), but I can sure recommend this one to anybody who wants to know how and why the United States arrived at this point.
He’s also an entertaining speaker. I enjoyed this webinar a week or so ago from the Australia Institute, now available on YouTube. “Harris vs Trump: The contest for the soul of America” | Nick Bryant & Dr Emma Shortis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPQg...
If you’re interested in the gun issue, I recommend a book I read and reviewed in 2017: Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge.
My review of Another Day in the Death of America..."
[Apologies that my book and author links aren't working]
“In the telling of the American story, acts like Kennedy’s assassination have been treated as abnormalities, a tendency that obscures the reality that they are more reflective of normalcy.”
’Twas ever thus is my short summary of what Bryant explains in interesting and well-researched detail with historical timelines, quotations, anecdotes, and countless examples. I don’t think there’s a decade he’s missed or a stone he’s left unturned since long before the pilgrims landed in 1620.
“So much of our understanding of America is based on false narratives and self-validating folklore. In pausing to consider how millions of Americans have come to embrace an alternative reality about the here and now, we need also to reflect on the effect of manufacturing such a mythic past.”
I’m no expert, but I am a reasonably well-informed bystander, and the pages of footnotes and references, as well as an index, are the mark of someone who hasn’t just written a slick memoir. This is history, and he makes it easy to fact-check him if you want to.
But there’s nothing dry and text-book dull about it. Bryant was born and raised in the UK, was a BBC journalist and foreign correspondent for years, and now lives in Sydney, Australia, with his family. He left not long after Trump took office. He knows how to tell (and sell) a story and keep you reading.
I will admit that if it was a part of history I was already pretty familiar with, I skimmed. A few examples.
* I know there have been assassination attempts on many presidents.
* I know the Constitution was set up by influential white male landowners to restrict votes and powers to their class. They wanted a new world aristocracy - men like themselves. - not a democracy.
* I understand (more or less!) how the Electoral College was established for much the same reason, which was that the votes of educated white men of influence (generally landholders) should outweigh those of the general public.
As Bryant puts it: “The Electoral College, the mechanism for electing the president, also served as a firewall against the popular will.”
[Note: We saw that most recently in the presidential elections of Gore v. Bush (2000) and Clinton v. Trump (2016) where the first candidate mentioned had more popular votes overall, but the Electoral College, (where each state decides how its voters' votes will be apportioned to the “Electors”) swung the majority to the second-placed candidate, allowing them to win.
* I know that the leading cause of deaths in children is from guns, the highest proportion of victims being children of colour.
* I know some things but not nearly enough. And knowing it doesn’t make me feel any better, nor, I realise, does it make Nick Bryant feel any better. As his children were growing up, the reality of living in New York hit pretty hard. No school is safe.
“Drills were scheduled every few months or so, a classroom ritual which involved locking the door, pulling down the blinds, turning off the lights and crouching under desks. Our children had been conducting them since the age of three, treating them like a game of hide and seek in which they remained motionless and mute. As they moved from kindergarten into elementary school, teachers told them they were rehearsing for a hurricane. Yet the threat came, of course, from a hail of bullets.”
I hope this is widely read and discussed. President Joe Biden has Bryant’s previous book When America Stopped Being Great -A History of the Present on his bookshelf in the Oval Office. The author has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford – the guy knows his stuff.
It is comprehensive, clear, understandable, and a good read. To give you an idea of what he covers, here are the chapter titles.
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
As Bryant says, there is a folkloric myth of what America used to be. I often say that many of us are nostalgic for a past that never really was.
I haven’t read the book on President Biden’s shelf (yet), but I can sure recommend this one to anybody who wants to know how and why the United States arrived at this point.
He’s also an entertaining speaker. I enjoyed this webinar a week or so ago from the Australia Institute, now available on YouTube. “Harris vs Trump: The contest for the soul of America” | Nick Bryant & Dr Emma Shortis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPQg...
If you’re interested in the gun issue, I recommend a book I read and reviewed in 2017: Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge.
My review of Another Day in the Death of America..."
[Apologies that my book and author links aren't working]
March 10, 2025
When it comes to analysing how and why nations go wrong, It often takes an outsider with a particular affinity for the country in question to provide the most penetrating and clear-eyed insights.
This is the service provided in this masterful volume by Nick Bryant, the BBC’s former chief correspondent in Washington. Bryant had fallen in love with the USA as a boy growing up in Britain and went on to complete a doctorate in American politics at Oxford. So he has both the on-the-ground reporting experience covering the chaos of the first Trump presidency and the detailed understanding of America’s constitutional and political history.
Trumpism is often portrayed as a break with America’s liberal democratic past, but Bryant shows in this book how the current dysfunction, extreme partisanship and divorce from reality are really natural extensions of everything that came before.
“American democracy has become so diseased because for most of the country’s history it has never been that healthy,” he writes, noting that a country calling itself the ‘United’ States was never that united in the first place.
For instance, the right to vote was never enshrined in their sacred constitution, the bill of rights made no mention of voting, while slave owners were granted more protections than anyone else. The framers were hostile to the notion of democracy and designed a system of government to guard against ‘the tyranny of the majority’. It was why a popularly elected president can still be thwarted by their arcane Electoral College.
Yet for 250 years, Americans have embraced the notion of exceptionalism, casting their polity as a shining city on the hill for the world to emulate. Now, watching a country wracked by gun violence, appalling polarisation, a politicised judiciary, a rigged and chaotic electoral system that disenfranchises millions, the corruption of big money buying entire parties and candidates, the gradual eradication of any division between church and state, the failed foreign wars, the trillions in public debt, attacks on women’s bodily autonomy, the ruinously inefficient health system and declining lifespans - who in their right minds would want to copy the USA?
Brand America is wrecked and much of the rest of the civilised world is now trying to put as much distance as it can between itself and Washington. Even the charm of their once enormously successful ‘soft power’ - built on Hollywood, popular music, advertising, fashion and spectacle - is rapidly fading.
Trump’s depressing and disheartening victory in 2024 seals the deal - killing off whatever remaining chances we have to slow climate change and bringing America closer to an all-out military confrontation with China..and with itself.
It’s a tragedy for the US. Unfortunately, given America’s still overwhelming economic and military power, it is just as much a tragedy for the rest of humanity.
Bryant left the USA after the January 6 violent attempt to overthrow the result of the 2020 presidential election which brought Joe Biden to power. He now watches events unfold from afar at his new family home in Sydney, where I also live.
I’d like to believe our shared distance from the centre of the madness will protect us. But I’m no longer so sure.
Essential reading.
This is the service provided in this masterful volume by Nick Bryant, the BBC’s former chief correspondent in Washington. Bryant had fallen in love with the USA as a boy growing up in Britain and went on to complete a doctorate in American politics at Oxford. So he has both the on-the-ground reporting experience covering the chaos of the first Trump presidency and the detailed understanding of America’s constitutional and political history.
Trumpism is often portrayed as a break with America’s liberal democratic past, but Bryant shows in this book how the current dysfunction, extreme partisanship and divorce from reality are really natural extensions of everything that came before.
“American democracy has become so diseased because for most of the country’s history it has never been that healthy,” he writes, noting that a country calling itself the ‘United’ States was never that united in the first place.
For instance, the right to vote was never enshrined in their sacred constitution, the bill of rights made no mention of voting, while slave owners were granted more protections than anyone else. The framers were hostile to the notion of democracy and designed a system of government to guard against ‘the tyranny of the majority’. It was why a popularly elected president can still be thwarted by their arcane Electoral College.
Yet for 250 years, Americans have embraced the notion of exceptionalism, casting their polity as a shining city on the hill for the world to emulate. Now, watching a country wracked by gun violence, appalling polarisation, a politicised judiciary, a rigged and chaotic electoral system that disenfranchises millions, the corruption of big money buying entire parties and candidates, the gradual eradication of any division between church and state, the failed foreign wars, the trillions in public debt, attacks on women’s bodily autonomy, the ruinously inefficient health system and declining lifespans - who in their right minds would want to copy the USA?
Brand America is wrecked and much of the rest of the civilised world is now trying to put as much distance as it can between itself and Washington. Even the charm of their once enormously successful ‘soft power’ - built on Hollywood, popular music, advertising, fashion and spectacle - is rapidly fading.
Trump’s depressing and disheartening victory in 2024 seals the deal - killing off whatever remaining chances we have to slow climate change and bringing America closer to an all-out military confrontation with China..and with itself.
It’s a tragedy for the US. Unfortunately, given America’s still overwhelming economic and military power, it is just as much a tragedy for the rest of humanity.
Bryant left the USA after the January 6 violent attempt to overthrow the result of the 2020 presidential election which brought Joe Biden to power. He now watches events unfold from afar at his new family home in Sydney, where I also live.
I’d like to believe our shared distance from the centre of the madness will protect us. But I’m no longer so sure.
Essential reading.
June 16, 2024
Nick Bryant used to give young journalists when they first arrived at the BBC’s Washington Bureau guiding advice. He would tell them to remember the United States fought a civil war in the mid-19th century and was still coming to terms with the peace. The racism, violence and division of that era are part of the US's political culture.
The schism, hatred and extreme views of today didn't arrive with the real-estate-developer turned television reality show host turned President. Bryant argues they were always there and that Trump's election was “almost historically inescapable”.
Trump shocked the world when he won in 2016 and he has continued to not just shock, but to damage democracy. His opponents were relieved when President Biden won in 2020; at last we can get back to normal. But Trump might be part of the normal.
There are fears a second Trump presidency is a threat to the United States staying in one piece, that violence will increase, and the republic's institutions are endangered. Bryant debunks myths about the republic's foundation and shows its survival was uncertain from the outset. Racial violence is deeply rooted in the republic's slave-ridden past and is part of the normal as is Trump's push of the limits of power. Revered presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt were among those who acted undemocratically.
Bryant is not a Trump apologist and his concern for the United States comes across in several chapters that are told from a personal perspective. And he provides a well-argued, sound explanation of the state of the United States today. He doesn’t think there’ll be another civil war but does think the uncertain and violent times will continue, as they have done since white settlement.
The schism, hatred and extreme views of today didn't arrive with the real-estate-developer turned television reality show host turned President. Bryant argues they were always there and that Trump's election was “almost historically inescapable”.
Trump shocked the world when he won in 2016 and he has continued to not just shock, but to damage democracy. His opponents were relieved when President Biden won in 2020; at last we can get back to normal. But Trump might be part of the normal.
There are fears a second Trump presidency is a threat to the United States staying in one piece, that violence will increase, and the republic's institutions are endangered. Bryant debunks myths about the republic's foundation and shows its survival was uncertain from the outset. Racial violence is deeply rooted in the republic's slave-ridden past and is part of the normal as is Trump's push of the limits of power. Revered presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt were among those who acted undemocratically.
Bryant is not a Trump apologist and his concern for the United States comes across in several chapters that are told from a personal perspective. And he provides a well-argued, sound explanation of the state of the United States today. He doesn’t think there’ll be another civil war but does think the uncertain and violent times will continue, as they have done since white settlement.
January 25, 2025
The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict With Itself
first published 2024
HOLD THE PRESSES . . .
The Two Americas
'Following January 6th, fears of further domestic terror attacks causing mass bloodshed have not yet eventuated. Securing the convictions of more than 600 rioters and insurrectionists appears to have had the same dampening effect on militia activity as the crackdown in the aftermath of Oklahoma City.
Just as importantly, it showed that the rule of law remained strong, and juries were prepared to imprison insurrectionists. Even if politics has entered a post-truth twilight zone, America still has a largely fact-based and evidential criminal justice system.
The midterm elections in 2022 were largely encouraging. Aside from the attack on the home of Nancy Pelosi, and the assault on her husband, they were not marred by widespread political violence. The most extreme Big Lie true believers were defeated. Voters spurned election deniers who tried at the state level to get their hands on the machinery of democracy. Nor was there any election-related violence afterwards. Overall, the results suggested that there was a sensible majority who believed in democracy and the rule of law.'
'Even if the fissile state of politics feels more like the 1860s than the 1960s - the last time the country was such a powder keg - there are obvious differences to the lead-up to Fort Sumter. There is not the same north-south geographic divide. Though racism in myriad forms persists, it does not have the same explosive power as enslavement. It is not just a single issue that divides the country, but a whole swathe of issues, another point of difference with 1861. There's a strobe effect to American division, rather than a laser.'
The chapter, Ch.7, In Guns We Trust, you couldn't make it up.
America has 400 million guns in circulation.
A meme posted on Facebook in March 2019 by an Iowa Republican Congressman featured this political discourse. "Folks keep talking about another civil war. One side has about eight trillion bullets, while the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use."
That's American political discourse.
Thoughts and prayers.
'Recently, the state of Tennessee tried to ban drag shows, sparking a wave of copycat bills in conservative states. North Dakota passed a law allowing teachers to ignore their students' preferred pronouns. Bud Light lost its place as America's best-selling beer after a transgender influencer was paid by the company to promote it on social media, and conservatives mounted a boycott.'
They all just don't know what t'do with all that freedom.
It begins with,
'George Washington, slave-holding Virginians won eight of the first nine presidential elections. History has perennially excused the father of the nation on the question of slavery, . . .' 'His genius as a general and his statesmanship as president have eclipsed his cruelty as a slaveowner. Indeed, frequently he is referred to as 'a gentleman farmer'. One of the richest men in the country, his wealth derived from chattel slavery. Even his dentures were crafted from teeth extracted from the mouths of his enslaved labourers.'
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 of American Democracy
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
first published 2024
HOLD THE PRESSES . . .
The Two Americas
'Following January 6th, fears of further domestic terror attacks causing mass bloodshed have not yet eventuated. Securing the convictions of more than 600 rioters and insurrectionists appears to have had the same dampening effect on militia activity as the crackdown in the aftermath of Oklahoma City.
Just as importantly, it showed that the rule of law remained strong, and juries were prepared to imprison insurrectionists. Even if politics has entered a post-truth twilight zone, America still has a largely fact-based and evidential criminal justice system.
The midterm elections in 2022 were largely encouraging. Aside from the attack on the home of Nancy Pelosi, and the assault on her husband, they were not marred by widespread political violence. The most extreme Big Lie true believers were defeated. Voters spurned election deniers who tried at the state level to get their hands on the machinery of democracy. Nor was there any election-related violence afterwards. Overall, the results suggested that there was a sensible majority who believed in democracy and the rule of law.'
'Even if the fissile state of politics feels more like the 1860s than the 1960s - the last time the country was such a powder keg - there are obvious differences to the lead-up to Fort Sumter. There is not the same north-south geographic divide. Though racism in myriad forms persists, it does not have the same explosive power as enslavement. It is not just a single issue that divides the country, but a whole swathe of issues, another point of difference with 1861. There's a strobe effect to American division, rather than a laser.'
The chapter, Ch.7, In Guns We Trust, you couldn't make it up.
America has 400 million guns in circulation.
A meme posted on Facebook in March 2019 by an Iowa Republican Congressman featured this political discourse. "Folks keep talking about another civil war. One side has about eight trillion bullets, while the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use."
That's American political discourse.
Thoughts and prayers.
'Recently, the state of Tennessee tried to ban drag shows, sparking a wave of copycat bills in conservative states. North Dakota passed a law allowing teachers to ignore their students' preferred pronouns. Bud Light lost its place as America's best-selling beer after a transgender influencer was paid by the company to promote it on social media, and conservatives mounted a boycott.'
They all just don't know what t'do with all that freedom.
It begins with,
'George Washington, slave-holding Virginians won eight of the first nine presidential elections. History has perennially excused the father of the nation on the question of slavery, . . .' 'His genius as a general and his statesmanship as president have eclipsed his cruelty as a slaveowner. Indeed, frequently he is referred to as 'a gentleman farmer'. One of the richest men in the country, his wealth derived from chattel slavery. Even his dentures were crafted from teeth extracted from the mouths of his enslaved labourers.'
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 of American Democracy
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
September 13, 2025
I started out liking the book, but by the end, my feeling was "Meh." The further I got into the book, the more it read like a laundry list of events: quite superficial. And I was constantly trying to understand what audience the author was targeting. Not American. Australian? British? Global? None of those 3 makes sense either. It was a distraction I didn't want to be having.
I also found myself stumbling over poorly written and strangely constructed sentences: "Police killings we had watched before." "But only in return for an agreement that federal troops, whose presence in the five military districts that the Confederacy had been carved into during Reconstruction had been so crucial in the mass registration of Black voters, would no longer enforce civil rights." Huh? There were many more like this.
I much preferred Colin Woodard's "American Nations" and "American Character." They're much better written and therefore more enjoyable to read. Woodard provides a more in-depth examination of the divides that have existed in the US since the founding of the country. The Forever War is more recent and therefore includes events like George Floyd's murder, but I'm guessing there are probably much better books that cover events not included in Woodard's.
I also found myself stumbling over poorly written and strangely constructed sentences: "Police killings we had watched before." "But only in return for an agreement that federal troops, whose presence in the five military districts that the Confederacy had been carved into during Reconstruction had been so crucial in the mass registration of Black voters, would no longer enforce civil rights." Huh? There were many more like this.
I much preferred Colin Woodard's "American Nations" and "American Character." They're much better written and therefore more enjoyable to read. Woodard provides a more in-depth examination of the divides that have existed in the US since the founding of the country. The Forever War is more recent and therefore includes events like George Floyd's murder, but I'm guessing there are probably much better books that cover events not included in Woodard's.
March 10, 2025
A brilliant contemplation about how America's past is reflected in its present.
For me it was also an excellent history lesson going back to the settlement of America as an English colony, the battle for independence leading up to the Declaration of 1776 ,and the Civil War between the northern states and the confederacy over the issue of slavery.
The biggest learning for me was that even though the Civil War ended, racism never ended and if anything made the southern states more determined to keep control of their black populations.
Bryant interspersed his love for America with the things that made him despair, like the open hostility of political discourse on both sides fuelled by cable news and social media and Americans love of guns fuelled by a misguided interpretation of the Second Amendment and were a fascinating read for someone who lives outside of America.
Highly recommended for anybody who would like to learn how America's past shaped it into the nation it is today.
For me it was also an excellent history lesson going back to the settlement of America as an English colony, the battle for independence leading up to the Declaration of 1776 ,and the Civil War between the northern states and the confederacy over the issue of slavery.
The biggest learning for me was that even though the Civil War ended, racism never ended and if anything made the southern states more determined to keep control of their black populations.
Bryant interspersed his love for America with the things that made him despair, like the open hostility of political discourse on both sides fuelled by cable news and social media and Americans love of guns fuelled by a misguided interpretation of the Second Amendment and were a fascinating read for someone who lives outside of America.
Highly recommended for anybody who would like to learn how America's past shaped it into the nation it is today.
September 18, 2024
Really great insight into the two Americas that exist today and how such a great country has forever been divided.
December 24, 2024
Incredible insight into US politics
July 7, 2024
At times a terrifying history lesson in the violence of American politics and possibly the American pysche, this book highlights that America and its factions has rarely been settled. I recall in the 1980s, reading a Time magazine editorial which stated (and I paraphrase) "all the people of the world, want to be American". I didn't then and I certainly don't want to after this book. The 2nd Trump Presidency may be upon us later this year..... and maybe many Americans will not want to be American. The book has no answers, which is fine, America does not have answers, other than remaining in its Forever War with itself. And hopefully the rest of the world will not be enlisted in our localised versions of their war. A good, if sad, read.... not only about America but the dark side of human nature.
April 25, 2025
Full of insights and historical titbits. A times also horrifying. Well worth the read if you want to understand why the US is so keen on fighting itself.
September 18, 2024
I finally understand (although still don't comprehend) a lot of things that are just crazy to someone from overseas.
September 24, 2024
Bryant adds important historical context to the present day issues facing America. This is how history should be taught.
February 20, 2025
Read this book as am a fan of Nick Bryant’s articles published in The Age. Is a in-depth look at the origins of the current internal troubles plaguing America atm in particular Trump. Didn’t disappoint.
March 14, 2025
In the recent past I have steered clear of American politics, it has become too polarized, too infested with lies and falsities and ultimately, too weird. Nevertheless I had heard and read some of Nick Bryant’s commentary.
These days journalists often hop on the political bandwagon and punch out contemporary commentary on a range of political issues. If newspapers are the first version of history journalists’ books are the second. Bryant’s book is in part of the third version. He has a PhD in American history so the book is filled with references to events and decisions that had huge influences on the direction of American politics and government.
Bryant’s writing shines a bright spotlight on the many failings of the USA, I found it rather depressing at times. Americans do not take kindly to criticism and their exceptionalism is farcical at times.
To gain a greater understanding of how this powerful country reached the polarized state that they are in today then this book is a most worthwhile read. Meanwhile I will sit back, and with reserved interest, watch the unfolding political battles of this forever war till November 5.
These days journalists often hop on the political bandwagon and punch out contemporary commentary on a range of political issues. If newspapers are the first version of history journalists’ books are the second. Bryant’s book is in part of the third version. He has a PhD in American history so the book is filled with references to events and decisions that had huge influences on the direction of American politics and government.
Bryant’s writing shines a bright spotlight on the many failings of the USA, I found it rather depressing at times. Americans do not take kindly to criticism and their exceptionalism is farcical at times.
To gain a greater understanding of how this powerful country reached the polarized state that they are in today then this book is a most worthwhile read. Meanwhile I will sit back, and with reserved interest, watch the unfolding political battles of this forever war till November 5.
May 12, 2025
There is a time during childhood when we lose belief in the fantasy of the Santa Claus myth. Reality bites. We confront the truth that the jolly old man in red is none other than our parents who have endeavoured to fulfil our dreams from their hard-earned money.
Nick Bryant in 'The Forever War' invites readers to move on from the great American myth - 'The Land of the Free' perpetuated by stories of heroes, polished by actors in Hollywood. The roots of the chaos we witness today in America goes back to its conception. What we see in Trump is a fuller expression of what has been an unhealed wound in the US psyche. The door was always ajar - with Trump, it's fully open.
Bryant argues that underneath the veneer, the nation is white-anted with countless disputes and problems, including attacks on democracy, violence, demagoguery, racism, guns, culture wars, book banning and decline in civilities.
Bryant's demythologising reaches back to the days of the Founding Fathers in his comprehensive examination of the structure of American society. The world's greatest democracy is not what it seems. 'We the people', the words that open the preamble to the US Constitution "were not conceived as a catch call for mass democracy. The focus was on how that body politic should be restrained in an intricately designed straight jacket. The founding fathers did not care for the word, and ever since, defining 'the right to vote' has been a ploy in the hands of politicians, intent on their pursuit of power.
Bryant unpacks a long list of American political leaders who seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
He writes, "From 2015 onwards Trump tapped into precisely the same anxieties as his demagogic forbearers. A deep-rooted suspicion of central government; a collective sense of victimhood; an ugly racism and hostility towards the other; and anti-intellectualism; an anti-elitism: a populist anti-capitalism; a nostalgic nationalism; and the drawing of battlelines which portrayed him as a David up against the Goliath." (p.108)
"Throughout history, Americans have always been susceptible to demagogues promising to make their country great again, whatever their qualifications for the job."
Bryant reminds us, the old saying is true - "Victors get to write the history." This is not only true of the outcome of war but also political victory. Authoritarian Trump's entry to the White House, according to Nick Bryant, commissioned a 'rewrite of American history' - a glorification of the past or 'papering over the cracks'. Trump, in his second term continues his assault on the past.
In 1979 I stood amazed in the circular structure in Disneyland and experienced the spotless story of America unfold, projected onto multiple screens covering the 360º expanse. Pulsating with surround sound, the patriotic anthems of 'America the Beautiful' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner' drawing enthusiastic applause from the audience.
The Circle-Vision 360º initially was used as propaganda at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959 under President Nixon's watch. This pristine view of American history, reflected in George Bancroft's publication ' A Primary History of the United States for Schools and Families' in 1857 was built on the premise, 'Everyone born in this free and beautiful country, should be proud of it, thankful for God for it, and willing to do everything that is right to keep it free and good.' This required sanitisation - the dark side didn't get a look in. The cracks were papered over.
Bryant also highlights the confusion around the interpretation of the Second Amendment relating to gun control, protesting it is far removed from the intended meaning of America's Founding Fathers. It states;
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (December 15, 1791)
He writes, 'No passage of mangled syntax and dodgy grammar has become so ferociously contested in contemporary America as the second amendment, the 27 words decided upon by the Senate as the Bill of Rights went through its clunky ratification process.' (p. 221)
We are to note the words, 'well regulated militia'. The concept is communal, a collective, a group.
In the modern era the gun lobby have tried to rewrite the words and enshrine a right to personal gun ownership. Yet individual gun rights are not part of America's constitutional DNA. Rather, the thinking behind the second amendment was to offer states the surety that they could keep their militias and thus preserve their autonomy. First and foremost, it was a safeguard against a federal standing army, which in post revolution America was seen as an instrument of monarchical power and thus a tyrannical throwback to the days of British rule. Armed militias, a term used to describe the informal armies of the 13 colonies made up of citizen soldiers, would become the watchmen of America's newly won freedoms and guard against an overbearing federal government.
The behaviour of the gun lobby is reminiscent of the 'revisions' in George Orwell's 'Animal Farm. Since the official recording of mass shootings (4 or more deaths) in the US since 2013, the highest number of deaths, 682 occurred in 2022. So far this year 83 mass shootings have resulted in 75 deaths and 350 injured.
What else has driven this fanatical pursuit? Nick Bryant summarises, 'The pursuit of profits relied on the proliferation of deadly weapons and the propagation of gun related myths.' (p. 227)
The Forever War is an engaging, comprehensive, readable analysis of American political history, well documented, an essential resource for understanding the 'American Way.'
Nick Bryant in 'The Forever War' invites readers to move on from the great American myth - 'The Land of the Free' perpetuated by stories of heroes, polished by actors in Hollywood. The roots of the chaos we witness today in America goes back to its conception. What we see in Trump is a fuller expression of what has been an unhealed wound in the US psyche. The door was always ajar - with Trump, it's fully open.
Bryant argues that underneath the veneer, the nation is white-anted with countless disputes and problems, including attacks on democracy, violence, demagoguery, racism, guns, culture wars, book banning and decline in civilities.
Bryant's demythologising reaches back to the days of the Founding Fathers in his comprehensive examination of the structure of American society. The world's greatest democracy is not what it seems. 'We the people', the words that open the preamble to the US Constitution "were not conceived as a catch call for mass democracy. The focus was on how that body politic should be restrained in an intricately designed straight jacket. The founding fathers did not care for the word, and ever since, defining 'the right to vote' has been a ploy in the hands of politicians, intent on their pursuit of power.
Bryant unpacks a long list of American political leaders who seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
He writes, "From 2015 onwards Trump tapped into precisely the same anxieties as his demagogic forbearers. A deep-rooted suspicion of central government; a collective sense of victimhood; an ugly racism and hostility towards the other; and anti-intellectualism; an anti-elitism: a populist anti-capitalism; a nostalgic nationalism; and the drawing of battlelines which portrayed him as a David up against the Goliath." (p.108)
"Throughout history, Americans have always been susceptible to demagogues promising to make their country great again, whatever their qualifications for the job."
Bryant reminds us, the old saying is true - "Victors get to write the history." This is not only true of the outcome of war but also political victory. Authoritarian Trump's entry to the White House, according to Nick Bryant, commissioned a 'rewrite of American history' - a glorification of the past or 'papering over the cracks'. Trump, in his second term continues his assault on the past.
In 1979 I stood amazed in the circular structure in Disneyland and experienced the spotless story of America unfold, projected onto multiple screens covering the 360º expanse. Pulsating with surround sound, the patriotic anthems of 'America the Beautiful' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner' drawing enthusiastic applause from the audience.
The Circle-Vision 360º initially was used as propaganda at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959 under President Nixon's watch. This pristine view of American history, reflected in George Bancroft's publication ' A Primary History of the United States for Schools and Families' in 1857 was built on the premise, 'Everyone born in this free and beautiful country, should be proud of it, thankful for God for it, and willing to do everything that is right to keep it free and good.' This required sanitisation - the dark side didn't get a look in. The cracks were papered over.
Bryant also highlights the confusion around the interpretation of the Second Amendment relating to gun control, protesting it is far removed from the intended meaning of America's Founding Fathers. It states;
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (December 15, 1791)
He writes, 'No passage of mangled syntax and dodgy grammar has become so ferociously contested in contemporary America as the second amendment, the 27 words decided upon by the Senate as the Bill of Rights went through its clunky ratification process.' (p. 221)
We are to note the words, 'well regulated militia'. The concept is communal, a collective, a group.
In the modern era the gun lobby have tried to rewrite the words and enshrine a right to personal gun ownership. Yet individual gun rights are not part of America's constitutional DNA. Rather, the thinking behind the second amendment was to offer states the surety that they could keep their militias and thus preserve their autonomy. First and foremost, it was a safeguard against a federal standing army, which in post revolution America was seen as an instrument of monarchical power and thus a tyrannical throwback to the days of British rule. Armed militias, a term used to describe the informal armies of the 13 colonies made up of citizen soldiers, would become the watchmen of America's newly won freedoms and guard against an overbearing federal government.
The behaviour of the gun lobby is reminiscent of the 'revisions' in George Orwell's 'Animal Farm. Since the official recording of mass shootings (4 or more deaths) in the US since 2013, the highest number of deaths, 682 occurred in 2022. So far this year 83 mass shootings have resulted in 75 deaths and 350 injured.
What else has driven this fanatical pursuit? Nick Bryant summarises, 'The pursuit of profits relied on the proliferation of deadly weapons and the propagation of gun related myths.' (p. 227)
The Forever War is an engaging, comprehensive, readable analysis of American political history, well documented, an essential resource for understanding the 'American Way.'
May 22, 2024
Thank you Bloomsbury Continuum for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. No review was required as a condition for receiving the advance reading copy and no review was promised.
Mr. Book just finished The Forever War, by Nick Bryant.
This is book about how the flaws in America’s political system, as well as our political polarization, are nothing new, but in fact has been a common theme throughout American history. The theme of the book can be summed up in a single sentence from the author: “In the telling of the American story, acts like Kennedy’s assassination have been treated as abnormalities, a tendency that obscures the reality that they are more reflective of normalcy.”
As Bryant successfully shows, our political system didn’t just become diseased overnight or even gradually. It was that way from the very beginning.
The chapter on the Kennedy assassination, and that surrounding time period served as a very good start to the book. The author explained the truth about how we weren’t just one happy peaceful nation back then before the assassination changed everything. It didn’t change everything. It was just another datapoint on the kind of country this has been.
The discussions on both the election of 2000 and January 6 were among the strengths of the book. I especially liked that author made a connection between the Brooks Brothers Riot and the riot of January 6. And one thing that I love about history books is the little tidbits that can always be found within, such as Scalia’s real opinion of Bush v. Gore that he gave privately.
The chapter on gun violence could have been the best one in the book. Bryant combines both historical material as well as more recent events and data to make his points.
Bryant is a British born author who works for the BBC. When he points out that the rest of the world does not consider the concept of American exceptionalism to be a compliment, he has the experience and expertise to know what he is talking about. That discussion is one of the many strong parts of the book.
Bryant does a very good job showing how America’s true history has been whitewashed for the masses. That’s why I was a little disappointed in him when he repeated the myth that Nixon didn’t put up a fight in 1960 and conceded defeat in the interests of the nation. As anyone who has studied Nixon knows, having the presidency stolen from him while he sat back and accepted it is too much out of character for him. And, as the historical record, as documented by the newspapers of the day, show, the Nixon campaign was contesting numerous states and putting up a lot of court battles before finally giving up.
Mr. Book had previously given Bryant’s book When America Stopped Being Great an A. So he had big expectations coming into this one. This one exceeded his expectations and earned itself an A+, which also means it instantly gets inducted into my Hall of Fame. And maybe Mr. Book will eventually reread the other one to see if that can earn a promotion.
Goodreads, NetGalley and Amazon require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley and Goodreads. It will also be posted at Amazon, as soon as the book is released to the public. I will also be posting it at my new book review blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, which I expect to have up and running later in the week
Mr. Book just finished The Forever War, by Nick Bryant.
This is book about how the flaws in America’s political system, as well as our political polarization, are nothing new, but in fact has been a common theme throughout American history. The theme of the book can be summed up in a single sentence from the author: “In the telling of the American story, acts like Kennedy’s assassination have been treated as abnormalities, a tendency that obscures the reality that they are more reflective of normalcy.”
As Bryant successfully shows, our political system didn’t just become diseased overnight or even gradually. It was that way from the very beginning.
The chapter on the Kennedy assassination, and that surrounding time period served as a very good start to the book. The author explained the truth about how we weren’t just one happy peaceful nation back then before the assassination changed everything. It didn’t change everything. It was just another datapoint on the kind of country this has been.
The discussions on both the election of 2000 and January 6 were among the strengths of the book. I especially liked that author made a connection between the Brooks Brothers Riot and the riot of January 6. And one thing that I love about history books is the little tidbits that can always be found within, such as Scalia’s real opinion of Bush v. Gore that he gave privately.
The chapter on gun violence could have been the best one in the book. Bryant combines both historical material as well as more recent events and data to make his points.
Bryant is a British born author who works for the BBC. When he points out that the rest of the world does not consider the concept of American exceptionalism to be a compliment, he has the experience and expertise to know what he is talking about. That discussion is one of the many strong parts of the book.
Bryant does a very good job showing how America’s true history has been whitewashed for the masses. That’s why I was a little disappointed in him when he repeated the myth that Nixon didn’t put up a fight in 1960 and conceded defeat in the interests of the nation. As anyone who has studied Nixon knows, having the presidency stolen from him while he sat back and accepted it is too much out of character for him. And, as the historical record, as documented by the newspapers of the day, show, the Nixon campaign was contesting numerous states and putting up a lot of court battles before finally giving up.
Mr. Book had previously given Bryant’s book When America Stopped Being Great an A. So he had big expectations coming into this one. This one exceeded his expectations and earned itself an A+, which also means it instantly gets inducted into my Hall of Fame. And maybe Mr. Book will eventually reread the other one to see if that can earn a promotion.
Goodreads, NetGalley and Amazon require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley and Goodreads. It will also be posted at Amazon, as soon as the book is released to the public. I will also be posting it at my new book review blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, which I expect to have up and running later in the week
October 18, 2024
a genuinely excellent & clear-eyed analysis of the symbiosis between america’s perpetual internal conflicts & subsequent propensity for selective historical erasure. the first few chapters detailing the collective amnesia around political violence, demagoguery and authoritarianism are so good i read them twice. just to pull some random examples, i had no idea FDR tried to stack the supreme court with six additional justices and was only thwarted due to his own party in congress, or that columbus never once set foot on the mainland, or that the individualised interpretation of the second amendment was widely seen as fraudulent bullshit until about 25 years ago. had never even HEARD of the evil racist trojan horse that was project ratfuck, nor the 90s “history wars” which explain so much of the current hyper-politicisation of historiography. there’s a real vitality to the historical context this book provides; bryant pretty neatly subverts our understanding of america’s past. at the book’s best, we each become living witnesses to history, and archaeologists to the present.
having said that, i did have quite a few reservations - it seems particularly strange, considering the current climate, to omit any discussion of lgbt+ history, especially considering the chapter on roe v wade neatly dovetails with the - forgive me - complete fucking shitshow that is broader supreme court politicisation. subsequent analysis and excoriation of the culture wars centring around trans rights would have been a great follow-up, a real illumination of how legal systems are subject to soft power (however much that may be denied by the system itself). the last chapter frustrated me immensely. earlier in the book, there’s a genuinely outstanding passage about media treatment of trump and false equivalences (pages 141-143). it was wildly irritating to see those same false equivalences, so elegantly remonstrated earlier, then turn up in a uselessly centrist discussion of partisan language and habit. there’s just no way ‘latinx’ - the brief discussion of which reads almost exactly like the wikipedia article on the same, by the way, but with convenient omission of cultural imperialism and proposed alternative ‘latine’ - is analogous in any way to the derisive conservative subsumption of ‘woke.’ like come on dude. a really infuriating close to what is nonetheless an outstanding read.
the last thing the forever war did for me was remind me i should be reading more history. i’ve spent so much time this year mired in recent cultural studies. due to the speedy protean bullshit of current politics and tech, i’m also often dismissive of anything written more than five years ago. that’s my bad! in my arrogant insistence on being ‘up to date’ i forgot about, like, context. history at its best will always teach us lessons about the present - that itself seems to be a lesson i’ve accidentally consigned to oblivion over the last decade, though i suppose after ten years of “unprecedented” and “never-before-seen” i can be forgiven for forgetting, so long as i then work hard to remember.
having said that, i did have quite a few reservations - it seems particularly strange, considering the current climate, to omit any discussion of lgbt+ history, especially considering the chapter on roe v wade neatly dovetails with the - forgive me - complete fucking shitshow that is broader supreme court politicisation. subsequent analysis and excoriation of the culture wars centring around trans rights would have been a great follow-up, a real illumination of how legal systems are subject to soft power (however much that may be denied by the system itself). the last chapter frustrated me immensely. earlier in the book, there’s a genuinely outstanding passage about media treatment of trump and false equivalences (pages 141-143). it was wildly irritating to see those same false equivalences, so elegantly remonstrated earlier, then turn up in a uselessly centrist discussion of partisan language and habit. there’s just no way ‘latinx’ - the brief discussion of which reads almost exactly like the wikipedia article on the same, by the way, but with convenient omission of cultural imperialism and proposed alternative ‘latine’ - is analogous in any way to the derisive conservative subsumption of ‘woke.’ like come on dude. a really infuriating close to what is nonetheless an outstanding read.
the last thing the forever war did for me was remind me i should be reading more history. i’ve spent so much time this year mired in recent cultural studies. due to the speedy protean bullshit of current politics and tech, i’m also often dismissive of anything written more than five years ago. that’s my bad! in my arrogant insistence on being ‘up to date’ i forgot about, like, context. history at its best will always teach us lessons about the present - that itself seems to be a lesson i’ve accidentally consigned to oblivion over the last decade, though i suppose after ten years of “unprecedented” and “never-before-seen” i can be forgiven for forgetting, so long as i then work hard to remember.
March 12, 2025
I Saw Mr Bryant speak on two panels at this year's Adelaide's Writer's Week. The topics of discussion were along the lines of this book. That what is happening in the USA now is not an anomaly, but rather the norm throughout history. The imbalance of the Senate and the Electoral College were specifically to give more weight to the South, which had lower population of whites then the northern states. Even at the start to balance the population difference, slaves were counted as 2/3's of a person in determining the number of representatives in the lower house. Eventually the fissures and cracks could no longer hold and a Civil War erupted with massive casualties and the South in ruins. Despite a reconstruction and some law changes, the USA has been fighting the peace every since. And every time progress is made in advance civil rights for non-white males, such as women and people of colour there is an extreme push back. Mr Bryant illustrates this unending war early on in the book by quoting JFK's speach meant to be given in Dallas on the day he was assassinated: "railing against 'ignorance and misinformation', his prepared text warned of 'voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality', and of a worrying rise in anti-government sentiments amongst conspiracy theorists. Sound familiar?? He later quotes the author Kurt Andersen, who wrote: "Mix epic individualism with extreme religion' mix show business with everything else' let all that steep and simmer for a few centuries' run it through the anything-goes 1960's, and the Internet age, the result is the America we inhabit today, where reality and fantasy are weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled." If education taught more about the strong women of history and collective action, we perhaps wouldn't be where we are now, by showing that it was often the women on the wagon trains that kept things moving and got all those along the line to cooperate in order to survive, both the elements and the Native tribes protecting the territory. And the latest tempest in a teapot is railing against CRT (critical race theory), which simply states that racial discrimination was implanted in legal and social institutions from the founding of the Republic. Mr Bryant also dives deep into the 2nd Amendment's history of interpretation, showing that until WWII judicial judgements basically said the right to bear arms meant while in a well regulated militia, NOT open slather. And the majority of Americans agree with this, showing that the Supreme Court is currently totally out in LaLaLand and out of touch with the people. And fabulous read and a great primer on the history of race relations and the hard right in the United States.
November 10, 2024
Nick Bryant writes well researched and perceptive books about American politics and political history in a way that is both interesting and explains the system to the non-American reader. (He’s a former BBC correspondent with a doctorate in American history, so he knows his stuff). This was a very timely read in the leadup to the 2024 American elections.
American politics is a source of fascination for many of my Australian friends and I as it’s so drastically different to Australian politics with the huge rallies, electoral college votes and voting for the president directly. (Much of voting day in Australia is dedicated to where to get the best sausage in a bun and other snacks). While many of us learned a lot from the 2016 and 2020 elections, there is much that still befuddles us. Bryant explains these succinctly but well as he takes the reader through multiple contentious topics that have historically and still continue to divide people and politics. There are plenty of references for those who wish to read more as he goes back into history to explain why America is still a divided country today and what has brought it to where it is today.
Chapters focus on different topics, such as the constitution and why it may not be the perfect text or the all-seeing, future-proof document that some see it as. The Civil War is also covered, as are guns, reproductive rights/laws, race and the split between the two major political parties as politics became more targeted and divided. There are references to Trump’s presidency, but Bryant goes through the different strengths and weaknesses of other presidencies, such as Obama, the Bushes and right back to Jefferson. It’s very insightful and explains a lot of why America is like it is to an outsider. It covers history that isn’t discussed in popular culture or even much in the American fiction I’ve read.
It's easy to read as Bryant is an engaging writer; it’s the content at times that can be hard to stomach. The history we are told is that everyone wants to be America (unless you’re Green Day) but this book highlights the times where America has strayed off course for doing the best for its people and how it is off course. I wish this story wasn’t so captivating because who knows what will come next.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
American politics is a source of fascination for many of my Australian friends and I as it’s so drastically different to Australian politics with the huge rallies, electoral college votes and voting for the president directly. (Much of voting day in Australia is dedicated to where to get the best sausage in a bun and other snacks). While many of us learned a lot from the 2016 and 2020 elections, there is much that still befuddles us. Bryant explains these succinctly but well as he takes the reader through multiple contentious topics that have historically and still continue to divide people and politics. There are plenty of references for those who wish to read more as he goes back into history to explain why America is still a divided country today and what has brought it to where it is today.
Chapters focus on different topics, such as the constitution and why it may not be the perfect text or the all-seeing, future-proof document that some see it as. The Civil War is also covered, as are guns, reproductive rights/laws, race and the split between the two major political parties as politics became more targeted and divided. There are references to Trump’s presidency, but Bryant goes through the different strengths and weaknesses of other presidencies, such as Obama, the Bushes and right back to Jefferson. It’s very insightful and explains a lot of why America is like it is to an outsider. It covers history that isn’t discussed in popular culture or even much in the American fiction I’ve read.
It's easy to read as Bryant is an engaging writer; it’s the content at times that can be hard to stomach. The history we are told is that everyone wants to be America (unless you’re Green Day) but this book highlights the times where America has strayed off course for doing the best for its people and how it is off course. I wish this story wasn’t so captivating because who knows what will come next.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
August 6, 2024
An exceptional treatise of the cultural and political history of the USA and how the current status quo isn't the result of a few strident individuals but represents the long held divisions which America has always split itself into. The predominant one is the north-south divide which outsiders make the mistake of supposing it was settled by the American Civil War. Important culture-shaping ideologies such as exceptionalism are explored in depth and the mythology which surrounds the Constitution and Founding Fathers are exposed. The chapter dealing with American gun culture is as revealing as it is tragic, in the revelation that people, often children, are of less value that profits. It is often quoted that unity in diversity is the strength of the USA. If that is so, its ironic that their two hundred plus years as the "United States" - the plural is all important - have been dominated by which ever side of which ever issue/debate/ideology, holds sway. The aim is always the same ... to achieve dominance. For a country that prides itself on the strength of speaking with one voice and being the democratic leaders of the world, their democracy has been dominated by autocratic leaders. The quote which lingers from the book and in many ways underscores the now very obvious discordance between ideals and reality in America, is this.
“One of the most crushing blows to American prestige came from the anti-climax of seeing a once-in-a-lifetime politician stymied by a poisonous political culture. If a leader as gifted, graceful, pragmatic and poetic as Obama could not repair America, then perhaps it cannot be saved. Watching him hand over power to Trump was devastating for American esteem.”
This is a very important read. If serious pundits are right and America stands on the precipice of civil war again - although Bryant argues successful against this likelihood - it would be as well to understand the nation-long history that got them there.
“One of the most crushing blows to American prestige came from the anti-climax of seeing a once-in-a-lifetime politician stymied by a poisonous political culture. If a leader as gifted, graceful, pragmatic and poetic as Obama could not repair America, then perhaps it cannot be saved. Watching him hand over power to Trump was devastating for American esteem.”
This is a very important read. If serious pundits are right and America stands on the precipice of civil war again - although Bryant argues successful against this likelihood - it would be as well to understand the nation-long history that got them there.
September 16, 2024
‘The Forever War’ by journalist, Nick Bryant, is a literary gut punch. Chapter by chapter, the author forensically dissects, dilutes, and destroys the majesterial myth-making and ubiquitous propaganda on which the United States is built. When two assassination attempts were made on Donald Trump in the election campaign of 2024, President Biden strongly stated that such brutal violence does not represent the United Stated or its political system. The author conversely shows that not only presidential assassinations and political violence are common in the United States and is exactly what the nation represents, but proves that demagoguery, fraud, gaslighting, corruption, insurrections, massacres, and civil disturbances are the predominant political and governing system. Although Trumpism is referenced it places Trump in a much broader context as a symptom of endemic constitutional, economic, cultural, and social problems which were unknowingly and otherwise incorporated into the historical evolution of the country. Case in point, examples abound of the shortcomings of the Constitution - for instance, the lack of meaningful accountability for the role of president in the Constitution is simply because George Washington was seen by the founding fathers as an honourable man. And on another tack, the Constitution’s second amendment states ‘the right to bear arms’, which doesn’t sound even remotely passive and yet the National Rifle Association (NRA) has convinced Americans that citizens are commonly armed merely for the purposes of self defence and seasonal hunting. This is an important book which makes deeply troubling reading. It is dense, and intense with complex research evident on every page. With an astute use of statistics, legal fact, historical incidents, and referenced anecdotes Nick Bryant proves that the United State is deep within a cold civil war with no foreseeable resolution.
August 14, 2024
With the current fast paced news cycles and hyperbole, one would be forgiven for thinking that the current dysfunctional US is a once in a hundred years event. We all know about the Civil War and reconstruction but I did not know about the compromises that followed. These in turn led to the segregation that troubled the US after that and kept in place the North-South divide.
This book detailed the ructions that have led to the polarisation that is so evident in the current Republican and Democratic campaigns. The US has never really been a democracy and this is obvious in a number of ways. For example in the freedom to own guns and the inability of government to pass any restrictions on gun ownership. The gun lobby has turned to Second Amendment around on its head and the Supreme Court has been complicit. Most Americans want to limit the sale of guns (70%) but the NRL is too powerful. Most of the world can only shake their heads in disbelief that an 18 year old can buy an assault weapon. To illustrate this, I bought a bottle of wine while visiting the US, to consume with family at a special dinner. When my 5 year old grandson wanted to carry it home, I shook my head and said "No, you have to wait until you are 18". A passerby corrected me and let me know that the minimum drinking age was 21. I was aghast. The minimum age for owning a gun was 18!
This book detailed the ructions that have led to the polarisation that is so evident in the current Republican and Democratic campaigns. The US has never really been a democracy and this is obvious in a number of ways. For example in the freedom to own guns and the inability of government to pass any restrictions on gun ownership. The gun lobby has turned to Second Amendment around on its head and the Supreme Court has been complicit. Most Americans want to limit the sale of guns (70%) but the NRL is too powerful. Most of the world can only shake their heads in disbelief that an 18 year old can buy an assault weapon. To illustrate this, I bought a bottle of wine while visiting the US, to consume with family at a special dinner. When my 5 year old grandson wanted to carry it home, I shook my head and said "No, you have to wait until you are 18". A passerby corrected me and let me know that the minimum drinking age was 21. I was aghast. The minimum age for owning a gun was 18!
September 4, 2024
This book just reinforced my conflicting thoughts on US politics. On the one hand, I'm concerned by the polarised and aggressive rhetoric within US politics and the apparent threat to the stability of American democracy. But on the other hand, I'm weirdly comforted by the fact that violent division stoked by Trump is typical of American politics since its founding in 1776, and that we're just witnessing democracy in action, US style.
This book provided an easy-to-read overview of US politics from the founding fathers to the present day. It becomes abundantly clear that the demagoguery and divisiveness of Trump is nothing new (for example, in the 1930s a group of wealth businessmen plotted a coup d'état against Roosevelt with the aim of installing Smedley Butler as dictator). Of course, the US has always been a deeply divided nation. The most obvious example is the systemic racism going back beyond the Jim Crow laws and the civil war. Other examples include gun rights, abortion rights, and rife jerrymandering.
I recommend this book if you want a quick summary of why US politics is so angry and polarised, and why Trump-ism is nothing new to US politics. But beyond this insight, the book lacks in-depth analysis.
This book provided an easy-to-read overview of US politics from the founding fathers to the present day. It becomes abundantly clear that the demagoguery and divisiveness of Trump is nothing new (for example, in the 1930s a group of wealth businessmen plotted a coup d'état against Roosevelt with the aim of installing Smedley Butler as dictator). Of course, the US has always been a deeply divided nation. The most obvious example is the systemic racism going back beyond the Jim Crow laws and the civil war. Other examples include gun rights, abortion rights, and rife jerrymandering.
I recommend this book if you want a quick summary of why US politics is so angry and polarised, and why Trump-ism is nothing new to US politics. But beyond this insight, the book lacks in-depth analysis.
July 13, 2024
Nick Bryant, a former BBC foreign correspondent who was once based in Washington DC, seems to have fallen out of love with the United States, despite his protestations to the contrary in the final pages of this book. The country had him in its thrall when he was a teenager and a young man but his relationship with America has soured over the years.
The Forever War is largely a dispiriting litany of all that ails the American experiment, from the compromises made to keep the South happy after the nation’s founding all the way to today’s culture wars. That the United States is a country divided by race, geography, class, education levels, and voting patterns is not news. Nor are these divisions new, as Bryant points out.
Any clear-eyed student of American history and politics is aware of America’s problems: systemic racism, mass shootings, a polarized political climate, a politicized Supreme Court, to name just a few. My problem with Bryant’s book is that he tries to tackle too many topics and the result is a great deal of breadth but less depth than I would have liked.
The Forever War is largely a dispiriting litany of all that ails the American experiment, from the compromises made to keep the South happy after the nation’s founding all the way to today’s culture wars. That the United States is a country divided by race, geography, class, education levels, and voting patterns is not news. Nor are these divisions new, as Bryant points out.
Any clear-eyed student of American history and politics is aware of America’s problems: systemic racism, mass shootings, a polarized political climate, a politicized Supreme Court, to name just a few. My problem with Bryant’s book is that he tries to tackle too many topics and the result is a great deal of breadth but less depth than I would have liked.
June 13, 2025
This is an interesting book which shows that the current polarization of US politics is not a new phenomenon triggered by the Trump presidency but goes back to the ambiguous wording of the US constitution (ambiguous because of the compromises that had to be made in order to move forward) as well as the civil war which divided the country geographically between the Industrial North and the Agrarian South with slaves to work in the cotton and tobacco plantations. Enslavement was followed by segregation which only started to diminish with Civil Rights legislation but has not disappeared to this day. Rick Bryant shows that the US has had a violent history since independence with 4 Presidents assassinated and more assassination attempts. The author discusses the issues with gun control and abortion (and how it evolved). The book was written before Trump was elected in 2024 and warns readers as to what might happen with a new Trump Presidency where he would be surrounded by die-hard loyalists. A must read for anyone who wants to better understand what is currently happening in the US.
July 14, 2024
I must admit that I was not extensively knowledgeable about the history of the United States. This book, however, provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the factors that have contributed to the current state of division and turmoil in the country. It is a brilliantly written piece of literature and an essential read for anyone seeking to comprehend the transformation of this once-great nation. The depth of research, experience, and background that has gone into this book is truly remarkable. I have gained an immense amount of knowledge that I could never have imagined, and it has provided me with some of the answers I was searching for. Furthermore, it raises important questions about the actions that can be taken, not only in the United States but also globally, to address the past and learn from it in order to progress towards a society characterised by peace, tolerance, and political wisdom.
July 18, 2024
Excellently written book by a journalist who knows his stuff. British, but has lived in the US for many years as a BBC correspondent.
The book is mainly about the problems America is experiencing now - conflict, division, fighting, Trump, etc. - but he also goes to a lot of trouble to explain how America got into this mess by going right back to the founding of America in the 1600s and showing that America has always had problems including violence and has always been divided. It has often in the past had populist leaders trying to grab power and destroy democracy.
The author doesn't seem to have any solutions to these problems but the main thing is to educate Americans about their own history so they can sort out the reality from the lies and myths they have grown up with and start understanding what their problems are and why they occurred so they can work out their own solutions.
The book is mainly about the problems America is experiencing now - conflict, division, fighting, Trump, etc. - but he also goes to a lot of trouble to explain how America got into this mess by going right back to the founding of America in the 1600s and showing that America has always had problems including violence and has always been divided. It has often in the past had populist leaders trying to grab power and destroy democracy.
The author doesn't seem to have any solutions to these problems but the main thing is to educate Americans about their own history so they can sort out the reality from the lies and myths they have grown up with and start understanding what their problems are and why they occurred so they can work out their own solutions.
March 28, 2025
This is truly a scary book.
I spend much (perhaps too much) time following US politics but I previously thought that the constitution is strong enough to keep things under control.
Nick Bryant does try to reassure us of the checks and balances but only after a litany of abuses of and disregard for the constitution perpetrated by many past presidents.
Evolution of the deeply divided US society could be tragic for many of us outside that country.
The book was written before the 2024 election, even before Biden dropped out of the race. However a number of possible scenarios are sketched out and one of them is happening so far.
Although Dr Bryant studied American history at Oxford this is largely not a scholarly treatise.
It is journalism and reportage at such a pace in parts that there are poorly constructed sentences that could easily be misinterpreted. And yet in other places it drags on and is repetitive.
I spend much (perhaps too much) time following US politics but I previously thought that the constitution is strong enough to keep things under control.
Nick Bryant does try to reassure us of the checks and balances but only after a litany of abuses of and disregard for the constitution perpetrated by many past presidents.
Evolution of the deeply divided US society could be tragic for many of us outside that country.
The book was written before the 2024 election, even before Biden dropped out of the race. However a number of possible scenarios are sketched out and one of them is happening so far.
Although Dr Bryant studied American history at Oxford this is largely not a scholarly treatise.
It is journalism and reportage at such a pace in parts that there are poorly constructed sentences that could easily be misinterpreted. And yet in other places it drags on and is repetitive.
April 1, 2025
America—as Bryant so expertly, methodically and painfully details—is fucked. The world’s greatest democracy is the world’s greatest fraud à la Frank Abagnale Jr. From the fraudulent historic-revisionism and romanticisation of the Founding Fathers to the contemporary destructive nature of Trumpism; America has cancer to the bone and no willing or able operators to provide a cure.
Bryant contends we are in the ‘anti-America’ century and being 25 years and a second Trump term in, it is hard to argue otherwise. To go from the generational, technocratic and scholarly Obama to the malaise-inducing, infantile Trump is to showcase the decline and forever-divide of America. Systematic racism, sexism and elitism runs through the streets of Washington D.C to infect all corners of the country. America remains the global superpower, but are they on an unstoppable, self-inflected road of implosion as they are unable to reckon with their unresolved path?
Bryant contends we are in the ‘anti-America’ century and being 25 years and a second Trump term in, it is hard to argue otherwise. To go from the generational, technocratic and scholarly Obama to the malaise-inducing, infantile Trump is to showcase the decline and forever-divide of America. Systematic racism, sexism and elitism runs through the streets of Washington D.C to infect all corners of the country. America remains the global superpower, but are they on an unstoppable, self-inflected road of implosion as they are unable to reckon with their unresolved path?
June 13, 2024
A sociopolitical history book that outlines the (increasingly numerous) ills that America faces in the lead-up to what will undoubtedly be a momentous 2024 election. Bryant follows several threads across time to show how the US has come to such a fractured point in its history where a second civil war is somehow a possibility. It packs in a lot of information, but it is still concise and easy to follow without an in-depth understanding of US politics.
While he wears his politics on his sleeve (left-leaning, anti-Trump) and offers no solutions to the myriad problems he discusses, Bryant does not profess to offer anything other outsider's perspective on a country he once held in such high esteem.
In short: American exceptionalism is dead.
While he wears his politics on his sleeve (left-leaning, anti-Trump) and offers no solutions to the myriad problems he discusses, Bryant does not profess to offer anything other outsider's perspective on a country he once held in such high esteem.
In short: American exceptionalism is dead.
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