Merlan, Anna
Summary: American society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: from his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the accusations of “fake news,” he has fanned the flames of suspicion. But it was not by the power of one man alone that these...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company 2019
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 001.9 MERBruni, Frank
Summary: "An examination of the ways in which grievance has come to define our current culture and politics, on both the right and left. More and more Americans are convinced that they're losing because somebody else is winning. More and more tally their slights, measure their misfortune, and assign particular people responsibility for it. The blame game has become very popular. Grievance needn't be...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Avid Reader Press 2024
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Place a hold to request this item.Garfield, Bob
Summary: "Why is our society in the fix it is in? Is it all Trump's fault? Well, no. As often observed, Trump is a symptom of a virus has been incubating for at least 50 years and maybe 150. But not often observed is where the virus is imbedded: in the psychic core of identity. This book explores the primacy of identity in American society and makes the argument that hyper-polarization was not only...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Counterpoint 2020
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.2 GARFrank, Thomas
Summary: "What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America's winners presuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country? In this collection of interlocking essays, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company 2018
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.2 FRALevitsky, Steven
Summary: "Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Crown 2018
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1 available in Adult, Call number: 321.8 LEVTalty, Stephan
Summary: The first comprehensive account of David Koresh's life, his road to Waco, and the rise of government mistrust in America, from a master of narrative nonfiction. No other event in the last fifty years is shrouded in myth like the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Today, we remember this moment for the 76 people, including 20 children, who died in the fire; for its inspiration of...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Mariner Books 2023
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 KORESH, DAVID TALHemmer, Nicole
Summary: "For decades, Ronald Reagan's name has served as shorthand for the entirety of the modern conservative movement. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, Reaganism was, from today's vantage point, a brief digression in conservatism's history. In the 1980s, an unusual set of economic and political conditions and an unusually charismatic leader combined to win huge majorities for Reagan's vision...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Basic Books 2022
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 320.52 HEMRabb, Steven
Summary: "If the Founding Fathers surveyed our nation today and together composed a single speech to America, what would they say? The prologue begins to answer that question as it chronicles a current-day reunion of America's Founding Fathers at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Through a stroke of Providence, the Founders have assembled once again to take up their pen and save the country they love....
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Publisher / Publication Date: Liberty For All Publishers 2020
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: Social Politic RabbSnyder, Timothy
Summary: The author argues that American society is leaning toward despotism and totalitarianism and looks back at the 20th century for examples of how totalitarianism has taken over before.
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Publisher / Publication Date: Ten Speed Press 2021
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 321.9 SNYCopies Available at East Bay
1 available in Adult Graphic Novels, Call number: 321.9 SNYHurd, Will
Summary: "From former Republican Congressman and CIA Officer Will Hurd, a bold political playbook for America rooted in the timeless ideals of bipartisanship, inclusivity, and democratic values. It's getting harder to get big things done in America. The gears of our democracy have been mucked up by political nonsense. To meet the era-defining challenges of the 21st century, our country needs a reboot....
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Publisher / Publication Date: Simon & Schuster 2022
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 320.973 HURPosner, Sarah
Summary: "Why did so many Evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values with his every utterance? To a reporter like Sarah Posner, who has been covering the religious right for decades, the answer turns out to be far more intuitive than one might think. In this taut and meticulously reported inquiry,...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Random House 2020
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Summary: What does the "war on terror" and a new era of religious ferocity look like to an Englishman living in the Pacific Northwest? Jonathan Raban finds that as he reads the source texts that have inspired modern-day jihad, memories of his own rigidly fundamentalist adolescent atheism help him understand why young people suffering from cultural alienation, spiritual emptiness, and moral uncertainty...
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Publisher / Publication Date: New York Review of Books 2005
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 973.931 RABSykes, Charles J.
Summary: In How the Right Lost Its Mind, Sykes presents an impassioned, regretful, and deeply thoughtful account of how the American conservative movement came to lose its values. How did a movement that was defined by its belief in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, traditional values, and civility find itself embracing bigotry, political intransigence, demagoguery, and outright...
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Publisher / Publication Date: St. Martin's Press 2017
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Summary: Identifying what the author believes to be a battle between the priorities of civilian life and the war, the host of the critically acclaimed The Rachel Maddow show explains that today's focus on national security is actually compromising national stability, tracing the historical events and contributing factors that have promoted a deeply militarized American culture.
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Random House 2012
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Place a hold to request this item.Klein, Naomi
Summary: "Remember when it all seemed to be getting better? Before Trump happened? What went wrong, and what can we do about it? Naomi Klein--scourge of brand bullies, disaster capitalists and climate liars--shows us how we got to this surreal and dangerous place, how to stop it getting worse and how, if we keep our heads, we can seize the opportunity to make it better. She reveals how Trump is not a...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Haymarket Books 2017
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 303 KLEHughey, Matthew W. (Matthew Windust)
Summary: "On November 5, 2008, the nation awoke to a New York Times headline that read triumphantly: "OBAMA. Racial Barrier Falls in Heavy Turnout." But new events quickly muted the exuberant declarations of a postracial era in America: from claims that Obama was born in Kenya and that he is not a true American, to depictions of Obama as a "Lyin African" and conservative cartoons that showed the new...
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Publisher / Publication Date: New York University Press 2014
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 324.24 HUGSchiff, Adam B.
Summary: The congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald Trump, and who became the president's chief antagonist, presents an inside account of American democracy at its darkest hour and how its future is more uncertain than ever.
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Publisher / Publication Date: Random House 2021
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 973.933 SCHCopies Available at Kingsley
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 973.933 SCHReagan, Michael
Summary: The eldest son of the late fortieth president explains how today's political challenges are comparable to those of his father's political career, discussing how Reagan's famous 1976 speech at the Republican National Convention introduced still-applicable principles for a strong Republican party.
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Publisher / Publication Date: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press 2011
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 973.927 REAZelizer, Julian E
Summary: "The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump "is not an outlier; he is a culmination, alogical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years." In Burning Down the House,...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Penguin Press 2020
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 328.73 ZELBolling, Eric
Summary: The cohost of Fox News' "The Five" chronicles various stories of political scandal in Washington, DC, and ends by offering recommendations on how President Trump can rid America's capital of political corruption.
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Publisher / Publication Date: St. Martin's Press 2017
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 320.9 BOLCopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: 320.973 BOLWill, George F.
Summary: America's most widely read and most influential commentator casts his gimlet eye on our singular nation. Moving far beyond the strict confines of politics, George F. Will offers a fascinating look at the people, stories, and events--often unheralded--that make the American drama so endlessly entertaining and instructive. With Will's signature erudition and wry wit always on display, One Man's...
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Publisher / Publication Date: Crown Forum 2008
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 973 WILGreenblatt, Jonathan
Summary: Drawing on decades of experience in fighting hate through investigative research, education programs, and legislative victories, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League issues a warning on the rise of intolerance in the United States and offers a primer onhow to strike back against hate.
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Publisher / Publication Date: Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2022
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 364.15 GRECopies Available at Kingsley
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 364.15 GREBryant, Howard
Summary: "Full Dissidence is a collection of essays focusing on the corporate assault on civil liberties, collisions of race and identity, and the kleptocracy of the Trump White House has forced America to ask itself if its beliefs of freedom and democracy are more than just words"--
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Publisher / Publication Date: Beacon Press 2020
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1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.2 BRYGessen, Masha
Summary: "An analysis of the destruction the Trump administration has waged on our institutions, the cultural norms we hoped would save us, and our very sense of identity"--
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Publisher / Publication Date: Riverhead Books 2020