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American Breakdown: The Trump Years and How They Befell Us
Donald Trump’s residency in the White House is not an accident of American history, and it can’t be blamed on a single cause. In American Breakdown, David Bromwich provides an essential analysis of the forces in play beneath the surface of our political system. His portraits of political leaders and overarching narrative bring to life the events and machinations that have led America to a collective breakdown.
The political conditions of the present crisis were put in place over fifty years ago, with the expansion of the Vietnam War and the lies and coverups that brought down Nixon. Since then, every presidency has further centralized and strengthened executive power. The truly catastrophic event in American life was the invention by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of the War on Terror, designed to last for generations. Barack Obama’s practice of “reconciliation without truth”—sparing CIA torturers and Wall Street bankers—deepened the distrust and anger of an electorate that has rallied around Trump.
An unsparing account of the degradation of US democracy, American Breakdown is essential to our evaluation of its prospects. Arguing that Trump’s re-election seems just as likely as impeachment, Bromwich turns his attention to the new struggles within the Democratic Party on immigration, foreign policy, and the Green New Deal.
American Breakdown will be a crucial reference point in the political debate around the upcoming presidential election—a contest in which the forces that created Donald Trump show no sign of letting up.
The political conditions of the present crisis were put in place over fifty years ago, with the expansion of the Vietnam War and the lies and coverups that brought down Nixon. Since then, every presidency has further centralized and strengthened executive power. The truly catastrophic event in American life was the invention by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of the War on Terror, designed to last for generations. Barack Obama’s practice of “reconciliation without truth”—sparing CIA torturers and Wall Street bankers—deepened the distrust and anger of an electorate that has rallied around Trump.
An unsparing account of the degradation of US democracy, American Breakdown is essential to our evaluation of its prospects. Arguing that Trump’s re-election seems just as likely as impeachment, Bromwich turns his attention to the new struggles within the Democratic Party on immigration, foreign policy, and the Green New Deal.
American Breakdown will be a crucial reference point in the political debate around the upcoming presidential election—a contest in which the forces that created Donald Trump show no sign of letting up.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published June 25, 2019
7 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
David Bromwich
48 books24 followersDavid Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 22, 2025
I think Bromwich ranks among the best critics currently working — right alongside Gordon Wood, David Stockman, Nick Lemann, Heather Mac Donald, James Grant, Michael Lind, Elizabeth Lasch-Quinn, Mark Edmundson, Adam Kirsch, Bill Deresiewicz, and maybe Laura Kipnis.
I rarely advocate for a book being lengthier than it already it is but this book should be longer because so many of DB's best politically-themed essays are omitted—a shortcoming I've tried to rectify below by appending links to several more essays by him, some of which I think are even better than those in American Breakdown.
These 9 essays comprise American Breakdown:
Chapter 1: The Co-President Cheney At Work
5400 words
https://archive.ph/H5WzB
New York Review, Nov. 20, 2008
Chapter 2: What Went Wrong: The Obama Legacy
7300 words
Harper’s Magazine, June 2015
Chapter 3: Act One, Scene One
6300 words
London Review of Books, Feb. 16, 2017
Chapter 4: The Age of Detesting Trump
5200 words
London Review of Books, July 13, 2017
Chapter 5: American Breakdown
6400 words
London Review of Books, Aug. 9, 2018
Chapter 6: Midterm Fever
5200 words
London Review of Books, March 7, 2019
Appendix A: On the Election
1050 words
New York Review, Nov. 10, 2016
Appendix B: Bomb First
2000 words
New York Review, April 10, 2017
Appendix C: The Making of Donald Trump
1500 words
The Guardian, May 18, 2017
——————————————————
All of the above are fine essays. But I've listed below more essays — all of which are also politically-themed, and some of them, which I've denoted, are even better than those in American Breakdown. So, readers of all of these texts are likely going to wonder what criteria was used to select some of them for publication.
Bromwich also gave six audio-interviews to Christopher Lydon between 2009 - 2013, all of which pertain to Obama & are well worth listening to, even these many years after their first broadcasting.
Obama’s Delusion (great essay)
4700 words
London Review of Books, Oct. 22, 2009
Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts
2000 words
Huffington Post, Dec. 12, 2009
Diary: Obama & healthcare (great essay)
4400 words
London Review of Books, May 13, 2010
The Curveball of Karl Rove
4000 words
New York Review, July 15, 2010
The Dying Art of Political Explanation
1500 words
Huffington Post, October 16, 2010
The Fastidious President (great essay)
4800 words
London Review of Books, November 18, 2010
Rush Limbaugh: The Rebel Germ
4700 words
New York Review, November 25, 2010
The Historic [Midterm] Election
800 words
New York Review, December 9, 2010
Obama's Peculiar Custom
1500 words
London Review of Books, December 10, 2010
Obama on Civility and Lincoln on the Rule of Law
2600 words
Huffington Post, January 15, 2011
Obama, Incorporated
2800 words
New York Review, January 28, 2011
Obama’s Mental Bookkeeping
1700 words
London Review of Books, May 27, 2011
Obama: His Words and His Deeds
4300 words
New York Review of Books, July 14, 2011
Pity The Billionaire (a great, short essay)
1600 words
The Guardian, Jan. 13, 2012
Diary: David Maraniss’s Obama biography
3200 words
London Review of Books, July 5, 2012
Short Cuts — Rep. Paul Ryan, the Tea Party, & Ayn Rand
Two of Bromwich's lines on Ryan are uncharacteristically cruel, unfair, a glimpse of his dyspepsia unbound.
1000 words
London Review of Books, August 30, 2012
Saying It Straight in October (great essay)
1000 words
The Huffington Post, October 12, 2012
The Election
1700 words
New York Review, November 8, 2012
Now the Democrats Must Lead
1500 words
Huffington Post, November 14, 2012
Torture and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (great essay)
3400 words
Huffington Post, January 19, 2013
The Crossroads on Syria
2300 words
Huffington Post, August 29, 2013
Diary: Obama & Syria
3100 words
London Review of Books, September 26, 2013
Ukraine and Iraq: A Reminder (great essay)
2400 words
Huffington Post, March 27, 2014
Obama: The World’s Most Important Spectator (great essay)
4900 words
London Review of Books, June 20, 2014
Actions and Intentions in Gaza (great essay)
3300 words
Huffington Post, August 2, 2014
What Went Wrong—Assessing Obama’s legacy
7300 words
Harper's Magazine, June 2015
Short Cuts — Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary vs. Trump (very good)
1700 words
London Review of Books, v38n6, March 17, 2016
The Soul of the Tea Party
3800 words
The Nation, May 17, 2016
The Roots of Hillary's Infatuation with War (great essay)
2500 words
The National Interest, June 29, 2016
Donald Trump’s Ruling Passions
1200 words
The Nation, January 12, 2018
The Limited Virtues of Adam McKay’s ‘Vice’
2,000 words
New York Review, January, 5, 2019
Trump House-Cleaning
5200 words
London Review of Books, v41n5, March 7, 2019
Short Cuts: Robert Mueller’s Report
1800 words
London Review of Books, April 18, 2019
What It Means to be "Great" on a Planet Going Down (great essay)
3600 words
June 24, 2019
I rarely advocate for a book being lengthier than it already it is but this book should be longer because so many of DB's best politically-themed essays are omitted—a shortcoming I've tried to rectify below by appending links to several more essays by him, some of which I think are even better than those in American Breakdown.
These 9 essays comprise American Breakdown:
Chapter 1: The Co-President Cheney At Work
5400 words
https://archive.ph/H5WzB
New York Review, Nov. 20, 2008
Chapter 2: What Went Wrong: The Obama Legacy
7300 words
Harper’s Magazine, June 2015
Chapter 3: Act One, Scene One
6300 words
London Review of Books, Feb. 16, 2017
Chapter 4: The Age of Detesting Trump
5200 words
London Review of Books, July 13, 2017
Chapter 5: American Breakdown
6400 words
London Review of Books, Aug. 9, 2018
Chapter 6: Midterm Fever
5200 words
London Review of Books, March 7, 2019
Appendix A: On the Election
1050 words
New York Review, Nov. 10, 2016
Appendix B: Bomb First
2000 words
New York Review, April 10, 2017
Appendix C: The Making of Donald Trump
1500 words
The Guardian, May 18, 2017
——————————————————
All of the above are fine essays. But I've listed below more essays — all of which are also politically-themed, and some of them, which I've denoted, are even better than those in American Breakdown. So, readers of all of these texts are likely going to wonder what criteria was used to select some of them for publication.
Bromwich also gave six audio-interviews to Christopher Lydon between 2009 - 2013, all of which pertain to Obama & are well worth listening to, even these many years after their first broadcasting.
Obama’s Delusion (great essay)
4700 words
London Review of Books, Oct. 22, 2009
Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts
2000 words
Huffington Post, Dec. 12, 2009
Diary: Obama & healthcare (great essay)
4400 words
London Review of Books, May 13, 2010
The Curveball of Karl Rove
4000 words
New York Review, July 15, 2010
The Dying Art of Political Explanation
1500 words
Huffington Post, October 16, 2010
The Fastidious President (great essay)
4800 words
London Review of Books, November 18, 2010
Rush Limbaugh: The Rebel Germ
4700 words
New York Review, November 25, 2010
The Historic [Midterm] Election
800 words
New York Review, December 9, 2010
Obama's Peculiar Custom
1500 words
London Review of Books, December 10, 2010
Obama on Civility and Lincoln on the Rule of Law
2600 words
Huffington Post, January 15, 2011
Obama, Incorporated
2800 words
New York Review, January 28, 2011
Obama’s Mental Bookkeeping
1700 words
London Review of Books, May 27, 2011
Obama: His Words and His Deeds
4300 words
New York Review of Books, July 14, 2011
Pity The Billionaire (a great, short essay)
1600 words
The Guardian, Jan. 13, 2012
Diary: David Maraniss’s Obama biography
3200 words
London Review of Books, July 5, 2012
Short Cuts — Rep. Paul Ryan, the Tea Party, & Ayn Rand
Two of Bromwich's lines on Ryan are uncharacteristically cruel, unfair, a glimpse of his dyspepsia unbound.
1000 words
London Review of Books, August 30, 2012
Saying It Straight in October (great essay)
1000 words
The Huffington Post, October 12, 2012
The Election
1700 words
New York Review, November 8, 2012
Now the Democrats Must Lead
1500 words
Huffington Post, November 14, 2012
Torture and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (great essay)
3400 words
Huffington Post, January 19, 2013
The Crossroads on Syria
2300 words
Huffington Post, August 29, 2013
Diary: Obama & Syria
3100 words
London Review of Books, September 26, 2013
Ukraine and Iraq: A Reminder (great essay)
2400 words
Huffington Post, March 27, 2014
Obama: The World’s Most Important Spectator (great essay)
4900 words
London Review of Books, June 20, 2014
Actions and Intentions in Gaza (great essay)
3300 words
Huffington Post, August 2, 2014
What Went Wrong—Assessing Obama’s legacy
7300 words
Harper's Magazine, June 2015
Short Cuts — Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary vs. Trump (very good)
1700 words
London Review of Books, v38n6, March 17, 2016
The Soul of the Tea Party
3800 words
The Nation, May 17, 2016
The Roots of Hillary's Infatuation with War (great essay)
2500 words
The National Interest, June 29, 2016
Donald Trump’s Ruling Passions
1200 words
The Nation, January 12, 2018
The Limited Virtues of Adam McKay’s ‘Vice’
2,000 words
New York Review, January, 5, 2019
Trump House-Cleaning
5200 words
London Review of Books, v41n5, March 7, 2019
Short Cuts: Robert Mueller’s Report
1800 words
London Review of Books, April 18, 2019
What It Means to be "Great" on a Planet Going Down (great essay)
3600 words
June 24, 2019
November 7, 2019
Because it’s so painful to read the Trump era essays in this collection, and W’s administration seems so long ago, I most enjoyed Bromwich's criticisms of the Obama administration, which are spot on. The writing and the observations are excellent throughout.
September 19, 2019
The title is a bit misleading: More space is devoted to 'how they befell us' than to the agony of our time with an imbecile leader. There. The thesis has been stated.
Professor Bromwich gives us a concise and spot-on history of the past 19 years of the Presidency, with references for clarity going back to 1980. He takes the measure of Democrats as well as Republicans. The Dems hardly come away unscathed, as it should be.
Turning to the campaign strategies of both Clinton and Trump, Bromwich lays out his analysis of who did what right and incorrectly. His points are difficult to argue with.
As a tool for supporters of both Parties to consider where we've been and where we could and should go, "American Breakdown" is superb.
Six Chapters, three Appendices in 152 pages, with a vital 33-page Introduction.
Recommended
Professor Bromwich gives us a concise and spot-on history of the past 19 years of the Presidency, with references for clarity going back to 1980. He takes the measure of Democrats as well as Republicans. The Dems hardly come away unscathed, as it should be.
Turning to the campaign strategies of both Clinton and Trump, Bromwich lays out his analysis of who did what right and incorrectly. His points are difficult to argue with.
As a tool for supporters of both Parties to consider where we've been and where we could and should go, "American Breakdown" is superb.
Six Chapters, three Appendices in 152 pages, with a vital 33-page Introduction.
Recommended
September 18, 2019
Did I like this book?
Yes.
No.
It took me longer to read than I thought for a short as it is.
It is too fucking depressing.
My wife's BFF and her brother both voted for the Gutter Rat.
As textbook Republicans they voted to get a little more money in their pockets.
They have no interaction with "the government" except on April 15 each year.
Less taxes that is a good thing. And I can pay for whatever I need or want.
I will probably never associate with her BFF again, although he have a significant history.
I just can't.
The brother? Different story.
I was told several weeks ago that HE thinks Trump is an idiot.
It is good that I was not in the room when he said that. I would have choked on my drink.
After I collected myself I would have said: "No Andy, you're the fucking idiot.
I am not looking forward to XMAS this year in Atlanta, at his house.
It will be a long couple of days.
From his analysis of the Cheney-Bush co-presidency, in which foreign policy was reduced to permanent war, and Barack Obama's practice of reconciliation without truth, Bromwich chronicles the emergence of Donald Trump-the demagogue of a culture of corruption from which all traces of political interest and candor have dropped away. I despised Bush. With six months of BHO first inauguration I knew it was going to be another slog, and you know, people always ask if we are ready for a female president or a gay president. You know what I say? No one asked if we were ready for a pussy-grabbing, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynist, lying-grifter and HERE WE ARE.
I am not sure if we will ever recover from this trainwreck
Yes.
No.
It took me longer to read than I thought for a short as it is.
It is too fucking depressing.
My wife's BFF and her brother both voted for the Gutter Rat.
As textbook Republicans they voted to get a little more money in their pockets.
They have no interaction with "the government" except on April 15 each year.
Less taxes that is a good thing. And I can pay for whatever I need or want.
I will probably never associate with her BFF again, although he have a significant history.
I just can't.
The brother? Different story.
I was told several weeks ago that HE thinks Trump is an idiot.
It is good that I was not in the room when he said that. I would have choked on my drink.
After I collected myself I would have said: "No Andy, you're the fucking idiot.
I am not looking forward to XMAS this year in Atlanta, at his house.
It will be a long couple of days.
From his analysis of the Cheney-Bush co-presidency, in which foreign policy was reduced to permanent war, and Barack Obama's practice of reconciliation without truth, Bromwich chronicles the emergence of Donald Trump-the demagogue of a culture of corruption from which all traces of political interest and candor have dropped away. I despised Bush. With six months of BHO first inauguration I knew it was going to be another slog, and you know, people always ask if we are ready for a female president or a gay president. You know what I say? No one asked if we were ready for a pussy-grabbing, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynist, lying-grifter and HERE WE ARE.
I am not sure if we will ever recover from this trainwreck
Read
November 8, 2019A good analysis of the mess this country is in—a mess that Bromwich traces back to Reagan, an avuncular no-nothing that had clear opinions, a winning presentation, and no clue about the machinations of members of his administration, to Nixon, his treasonous pre-election negotiations with North Vietnam, his pardon for violating the constitution, and Dick Cheney’s “co-presidency” with George W. Bush. Please note the Party these heads of state belong to.
Our government has a habit of pardoning everyone who screws the populace over (Obama left the investment bankers walking free). Do you see the conditioning that establishes?
It is clear Republicans use their administrations to establish greater executive power and covert operations and Democrats disregard these now-established laws and, instead, attempt to involve the populace as more participatory democratic citizens ( That isn’t going to happen!)
From the conclusion:
“Can we recover a rational skepticism regarding the state and corporate institutions that for so long have governed unaccountably, and at the same time acknowledge the value of a representative government with three functioning branches? For constitutional democracy to survive, this doubt and fidelity must be made to coexist again.”
Our government has a habit of pardoning everyone who screws the populace over (Obama left the investment bankers walking free). Do you see the conditioning that establishes?
It is clear Republicans use their administrations to establish greater executive power and covert operations and Democrats disregard these now-established laws and, instead, attempt to involve the populace as more participatory democratic citizens ( That isn’t going to happen!)
From the conclusion:
“Can we recover a rational skepticism regarding the state and corporate institutions that for so long have governed unaccountably, and at the same time acknowledge the value of a representative government with three functioning branches? For constitutional democracy to survive, this doubt and fidelity must be made to coexist again.”
August 27, 2020
Although it was difficult to pinpoint the author’s politics, which felt a little disingenuous for a set of political analyses of the Trump administration, this was still a useful collection of musings on the systematic foundation for Trump and the collective insanity we’ve been living through since November 2016.
“The premature fantasy of a quick removal of President Trump - and the comparative slowness with which the real extent of his corruption was brought to light - have enabled the president’s backers to play the conspiracy story in reverse: an election Trump legitimately won is about to be retroactively reclaimed by the deep state.”
“The premature fantasy of a quick removal of President Trump - and the comparative slowness with which the real extent of his corruption was brought to light - have enabled the president’s backers to play the conspiracy story in reverse: an election Trump legitimately won is about to be retroactively reclaimed by the deep state.”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews