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The Bern Identity: A Search for Bernie Sanders and the New American Dream
It is one of the most improbable journeys in the history of American politics. How did Bernie Sanders make it out of the backwoods of Vermont – where he lived for a time in a ramshackle off-road “sugar shack” with no electricity, and where he never got more than 6 percent of the vote in a string of doomed, fringe far-left campaigns in the 1970s – to become a leading contender in the 2016 race for the White House? And perhaps more importantly for author Will Bunch, how did this gruff and sometimes didactic gray-haired political survivor make it out of the 1960s and ‘70s to become the last torch-bearer of the youthful idealism of that nearly lost “Age of Aquarius” – The One who didn’t drop out, sell out…or simply give up?
In the fall of 2015, Bunch – with the voices of the late Hunter S. Thompson and the other iconic “New Journalists” of that lost era ringing in his ears – set out on a road trip that took him from the battlefields of northern Virginia to the salty air of backwater Boston to the neon sky of the Las Vegas Strip, all to get to the bottom of “The Bern Identity.” He follows the long strange trip of Bernie Sanders – a kid from a cramped Brooklyn flat who couldn’t tell a lie in school, who mourned the migration of his beloved Dodgers and was shaken up by “Death of a Salesman,” who became a campus radical, a dreamer of revolutions, and then almost disappeared before his improbable election of mayor of Burlington in 1981.
Sanders’ remarkable bio is interspersed with the tale of the true believers who packed hockey rinks and concrete convention floors in crowds of 20,000 or more, who tweeted incessantly and posted memes of Sanders flying in coach class, and who exploded with excitement at their hero’s call for a “political revolution” to raise the beleaguered middle class. In a time of rampant cynicism about American politics, “The Bern Identity” turns into something most unlikely – a love story, between the long-distance runner who never gave up his fantasy of real social change, and the dreamers and the radicals and the formerly hopeless who were waiting for him at the finish line.
THE AUTHOR
Will Bunch is senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News – where he writes the popular political blog Attytood – and also shared the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting in 1992 when he was at New York Newsday. He is the author of two other Kindle Singles: October 1, 2011: The Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge, about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and Give It To Steve!, about the 1948 Philadelphia Eagles winning the NFL title during a raging blizzard. His full-length books include The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama, and Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy. His articles have also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Los Angeles Times, American Prospect, American Journalism Review, and elsewhere. He lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his family.
In the fall of 2015, Bunch – with the voices of the late Hunter S. Thompson and the other iconic “New Journalists” of that lost era ringing in his ears – set out on a road trip that took him from the battlefields of northern Virginia to the salty air of backwater Boston to the neon sky of the Las Vegas Strip, all to get to the bottom of “The Bern Identity.” He follows the long strange trip of Bernie Sanders – a kid from a cramped Brooklyn flat who couldn’t tell a lie in school, who mourned the migration of his beloved Dodgers and was shaken up by “Death of a Salesman,” who became a campus radical, a dreamer of revolutions, and then almost disappeared before his improbable election of mayor of Burlington in 1981.
Sanders’ remarkable bio is interspersed with the tale of the true believers who packed hockey rinks and concrete convention floors in crowds of 20,000 or more, who tweeted incessantly and posted memes of Sanders flying in coach class, and who exploded with excitement at their hero’s call for a “political revolution” to raise the beleaguered middle class. In a time of rampant cynicism about American politics, “The Bern Identity” turns into something most unlikely – a love story, between the long-distance runner who never gave up his fantasy of real social change, and the dreamers and the radicals and the formerly hopeless who were waiting for him at the finish line.
THE AUTHOR
Will Bunch is senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News – where he writes the popular political blog Attytood – and also shared the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting in 1992 when he was at New York Newsday. He is the author of two other Kindle Singles: October 1, 2011: The Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge, about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and Give It To Steve!, about the 1948 Philadelphia Eagles winning the NFL title during a raging blizzard. His full-length books include The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama, and Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy. His articles have also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Los Angeles Times, American Prospect, American Journalism Review, and elsewhere. He lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his family.
106 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 8, 2015
62 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 19, 2015
This e-book was a joy to write -- and I honestly think it's the best thing I ever written. You don't have to be a Bernie Sanders fan to enjoy it (although that certainly doesn't hurt) -- just someone who likes a good political yarn, written in the style of the "New Journalists" of the late '60s/early '70s (think Hunter S. Thompson and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72"). I'd be flattered if you'd check it out and tell me what you think!
October 18, 2017
For authors who think that voluminous is the name of the game when writing a biography, should take notice of this short wonder. Jeff Bezos’ vision made him the richest man in the world, and I feel that he has something special with his “Kindle Singles” selection, with people’s busy lives and options available that might be the future format for the reading world. Look at your children, and ask yourselves how many of them you see reading “War and Peace”? 1 out of 1,000,000 and that is probably a good estimate. But let’s get back to the book, “The Bern Identity”, it takes you to the time and place and it sounds authentic, the main prerequisite of any good biography. One little observation though, at times it felt like great Hunter S. Thompson the master of gonzo journalism came down from heaven and helped writing this book. No shame in that, we should all be inspired by greats. Johnny Depp became Hunter S. Thompson after playing him in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. A very good short read.
January 2, 2021
I really liked the style of this book, so I should absolutely read Fear and Loathing. However, and this might be the result of my covid brain, but I did not understand the many mentions of the Long March and a High Wire. I know he talked about Mao’s Long March but I didn’t see how it related to Sanders. Anyways it was a fun read! And I learned more about Bernie’s life than I knew before without sinking a bunch of reading days into a long book about him.
March 7, 2018
Ok
It wasnt what I thought, but it was a decent read. Nothing stuck out or with me, not bad but not a great read either.
It wasnt what I thought, but it was a decent read. Nothing stuck out or with me, not bad but not a great read either.
January 1, 2016
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a phenomenon - not just Sanders himself, but those who are his fans and supporters, the informal grassroots. None of this has been covered by the mainstream press in this way. Describing the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas: "On the sidewalk directly across Las Vegas Boulevard from the entrance to the Wynn, about 150 more Sanders supporters, most of them from Nevada and inspired to show up here by Facebook, waved their signs at passing cars and trucks...It was all but certain that the 500 or more credentialed journalists inside the press area at the Wynn - noshing on cold cuts and lost in their iCloud or watching the CNN pundits waxing incessantly about Hillary's private email server - even knew that these folks existed. It would have clashed too much with their bland and narrow mission to even wander over and talk with these folks..." Will Bunch of course is himself a prize-winning political journalist.
December 20, 2015
Great work by one of our best political writers, Will Bunch.
Not only a rich, engrossing look at how Bernard Sanders became The Bern, but a meditation on what the Sixties meant and might have meant, written in a way that the great Dr. Hunter S Thompson would applaud. It's wise, funny, touched with longing for what we might have had--what Bernie is trying to do now. Whether you like Bernie or not, this is a terrific way to understand what he's about, and you will leave it respecting the man even if not agreeing with him on everything.
Not only a rich, engrossing look at how Bernard Sanders became The Bern, but a meditation on what the Sixties meant and might have meant, written in a way that the great Dr. Hunter S Thompson would applaud. It's wise, funny, touched with longing for what we might have had--what Bernie is trying to do now. Whether you like Bernie or not, this is a terrific way to understand what he's about, and you will leave it respecting the man even if not agreeing with him on everything.
October 17, 2016
Excellently written work that offers a quick glimpse of Bernie's world perspective and the movement that has grown around it.
The Bern Identity offers an easy to read synopsis of the movement that Bernie Sanders has fueled while detailing the experiences and people in his life that have led him to this point. Invoking a style and tone reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson, this book provides a quick and entertaining read for anyone politically minded to those just beginning to "Feel the Been".
The Bern Identity offers an easy to read synopsis of the movement that Bernie Sanders has fueled while detailing the experiences and people in his life that have led him to this point. Invoking a style and tone reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson, this book provides a quick and entertaining read for anyone politically minded to those just beginning to "Feel the Been".
March 28, 2016
What a great little e-book about the long march of Senator Bernie Sanders from a low middle class family from Brooklyn to the US presidency candidacy. It is written in a very journalistic way (as opposed to a simple biopic) in the sense that it is not arranged in any strict narrative form, but instead it just goes with the current of the author's thoughts and interviews. Very interesting (even if hard to follow) style. Certainly a good "on-the-go" read for any politics buff or just Sander's enthusiasts. #FeeltheBern
June 18, 2016
Hope.
I found this books so inspiring. It maybe a bit too late. You should've read this book by now! The main thing I learnt was how the information in the US elections is so corrupt. I've been following the Bernie Sanders campaign ever since I finished reading this book. I have no doubts that he's my guy. However 'if I hadn't of read this book I wouldn't of known about the secret political revolution that is happening in the states.'
I found this books so inspiring. It maybe a bit too late. You should've read this book by now! The main thing I learnt was how the information in the US elections is so corrupt. I've been following the Bernie Sanders campaign ever since I finished reading this book. I have no doubts that he's my guy. However 'if I hadn't of read this book I wouldn't of known about the secret political revolution that is happening in the states.'
March 11, 2016
A journalist follows Bernie Sanders o. The campaign trail in the autumn of 2015. He never meets him but gives a good account of his history, where he came from, and how he became the old man that might lead to a young eager America.
The part I like most are the accounts of people who support Sanders. Pretty authentic people who one can be happy to know still exist.
The part I like most are the accounts of people who support Sanders. Pretty authentic people who one can be happy to know still exist.
January 31, 2016
One of my daily tip-top readings but this time about the real life hero of today's political world. This book is a simple solution to erase your question marks about Bernie. Good work!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews