A Rather Ambitious Look at American History

I wanted to like this book. However, I felt that the author pushed his premise too hard not giving an even handed look at America’s past. It’s always easy to lay your preconceived ideas over the facts of history. Certainly, the founders made mistakes from where we sit today, but that’s hindsight. The author criticizes Madison for the compromises he had to make to get the constitution approved by the states. They were not all on the same page any more that all our states agree today.

The author’s treatment of present history is much more balanced, and people can make up their own minds because they can see history in action. I can’t agree with everything he says about the villainous military-industrial complex, but he makes some valid points.

When I comes to slavery, I think he did the early abolitionists a serious injustice. They cared a great deal about the plight of the slaves and the fact that there were people speaking out about the abuses of slavery made the changes during the Civil War possible.

I found the book interesting to read even though I couldn’t agree with many of his conclusions about the early days of America. The fact that we have a country at all rather than a group of states is due to the fact that the founders were able to make compromises. We may not like them in retrospect, but much of what goes on today is not wonderful and compromise is always necessary.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

How did we get here? this book asks, and attempts to answer.

In the end, the answer is a little bit that we’ve always been here, and that when we ask ourselves, “are we the bad guys?” the answer is “well, we’re definitely not the good guys, but some of us are trying to get better.”

As the author says, “The myth of American exceptionalism tells us that greatness and talent reside naturally within us, that our achievements are expected and dully ordinary, but by casting aside this myth, this product of superficial politicking hand opportunistic branding, what we find is that normal people have been excelling and achieving greatness in spite of America. Once this is clear, it becomes obvious that the march on Selma, the Stonewall uprising, Frederick Douglass’s fearless turn as America’s conscience, the perpetual struggle by women and vulnerable minorities to seek equality, and even the ability of people to continue striving, dreaming, and just surviving in a system designed to hinder them at every turn, are just as inspiring as a band of eighteenth century revolutionaries defeating Great Britain, the world’s foremost empire.”

This was a really interesting read, although I admit I’m not an American revolution history buff, and even the portions covering the earlier twentieth century were less absorbing to me than the latter half of the book. Once it hit the post WWII era is where I really began to see all the lines the author was drawing and where the book really took off for me.

The idea of constructed realities and how we respond to those living in a different one from our own, and how those realities become the dominant worldview was really sobering.

Recommended reading, for sure.

I initially had trouble getting into this book, and wasn't going to give feedback. But having read more of it, albeit not all, I can say I found it wide-ranging--to a fault, in that it covers the whole sweep of U.S. history and thus is not able to delve deeply into many of the topics it touches upon. The author has a starkly drawn point of view, that the United States has been significantly authoritarian and aggressive throughout its history, but even a quick reading finds instances where the author's knowledge of a topic seems limited. Chile is given as an example of a country with a "primarily nonwhite" population, when it's a country in which polls have shown a majority identifying as white. George W Bush is purported to have presented as a "less rigid standard-bearer than his father," but he made great efforts to shore up the conservative support his father had lost.

This book is a blistering take on US history, equal parts riveting and terrifying.
Nearly every page makes you gasp.

Subtitled: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People

I follow Jared Yates Sexton on Twitter and became aware of American Rule through his promotion of the book there. I jumped at the chance to request this book the first time I saw it available on Net Galley. I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My daughter took a college course a few semesters ago that used Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as one of its textbooks, and during one of her breaks I was able to take a brief skim through it. I believe American Rule is similar to Zinn's book, focusing on the theme of differences between the mythology of the aims of America's government and the actual actions that our government takes.

This book takes readers on a concise trip through American history ranging from the revolutionary times of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson up through Donald Trump's America. There are several themes Sexton returns to again and again such as the myth of American exceptionalism, how the American constitution allows moneyed elites to use the government to protect and/or expand their own wealth at the expense of the common citizens it is supposed to support and defend, and how a combination of religion, white supremacy, and wealthy backers has poisoned the American political and governmental process.

I gave American Rule five stars. It provides a surprisingly concise yet complex summary of the American era. The outlook is fairly bleak toward the end, but offsets the pessimism by tossing out several actions we can take to make things better.

And which have led us to the present political moment. This is an interesting and worthwhile endeavor, and Jared Yates Sexton clearly possess the necessary knowledge and professional bona fides for the projects. Ultimately, the book is unsuccessful, largely due, I believe, to the author’s decision to organize the text as a chronological journey through American history. American history, though spanning only a short time comparatively, is simply to vast to allow for a complex rewriting and the analysis needed to make the necessary connections, particularly considering Sexton’s propensity to add information about philosophical movements, etc. to the discussion. This is not to say that such additions aren’t important and interesting. Instead, it means that EVERYTHING has the potential to get lost within the larger recital of 300+ years of American history. While I was reading this book, I was persistently plagued by the feelings of disappointment at the chance missed. I really wish that Sexton had instead chosen to organize American Rule by the themes/persistent threads he identifies and then cited historical examples to guide his analysis of the current political moment.

An amazing, timely book on the mythology around freedom and the American Dream that examines how our country was founded on violence, protesting, rioting, etc. and how freedom has had to be earned for all those who aren't white male property owners. Also examines our role on the world stage and somewhat hypocritical views on the rule of law internationally. Five stars all around.