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US Politics

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The ABR Podcast 

Released every Thursday, the ABR podcast features our finest reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary.

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Lake Pelosi

‘Where is Nancy?’ Paradoxes in the pursuit of freedom

by Marilyn Lake

This week on The ABR Podcast, Marilyn Lake reviews The Art of Power: My story as America’s first woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi. The Art of Power, explains Lake, tells how Pelosi, ‘a mother of five and a housewife from California’, became the first woman Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Marilyn Lake is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Listen to Marilyn Lake’s ‘Where is Nancy?’ Paradoxes in the pursuit of freedom’, published in the November issue of ABR.

 

Recent episodes:

Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House by Luke Harding

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March 2018, no. 399
Varun Ghosh reviews 'Collusion: How Russia helped Trump win the White House' by Luke Harding

It is now widely believed that Russia and its agents interfered with the 2016 US presidential election to help Donald Trump get elected ...

... (read more)

Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O’Donnell

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March 2018, no. 399
Barbara Keys reviews 'Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics' by Lawrence O’Donnell

It was the year an American presidential candidate declared: ‘We got too much dignity in government now; what we need is some meanness.’ Even without this call to arms, meanness was abundant. A prominent journalist, on live television, derided a rival as a ‘queer’ and harangued him ...

... (read more)

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

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March 2018, no. 399
Gideon Haigh reviews 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' by Michael Wolff

In his new account of Donald Trump’s presidency, Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff describes how Trump’s ‘adviser’ Steve Bannon counselled fellow White House newbies to read The Best and The Brightest as preparation for their administration’s tasks. Rarely for the mordant Bannon, his enthusiasm for David Halberstam’s 1972 classic ...

... (read more)

Richard Nixon: The life by John A. Farrell

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January–February 2018, no. 398
Andrew Broertjes reviews 'Richard Nixon: The life' by John A. Farrell

Richard Nixon remains one of America’s most intriguing presidents (1969–74). Intelligent, shrewd, and possessing a keen sense of the public mood, Nixon represented the ideal presidential model. His grasp of foreign policy has been unmatched by his successors, and his domestic policies represented the last hurrah of ‘New Deal'...

... (read more)

Democracy in Chains: The deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan for America by Nancy MacLean

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December 2017, no. 397
Max Holleran reviews 'Democracy in Chains: The deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan' for America by Nancy MacLean

On 12 August 2017 a mob of neo-Nazis descended on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, chanting racial epithets while openly carrying rifles and pistols. Many of the participants were from groups that advocate not just racial supremacy but the end of the US federal government, which they see as tyrannical ...

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Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s decline: From Obama to Trump and beyond by Gideon Rachman

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December 2017, no. 397
David Fettling reviews 'Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s decline: From Obama to Trump and beyond' by Gideon Rachman

Competing with Middle Eastern wars, terrorist attacks, and presidential tweets, Asia still tends to receive less attention than it merits. Furthermore, while geopolitical tectonic-shifts are occurring in the Indo-Pacific, it can be difficult to step back from daily headlines to assess the current transformation in its entirety. In Easternization, Gideon Rachman ...

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Audacity by Jonathan Chait & We Are The Change We Seek edited by E.J. Dionne Jr and Joy-Ann Reid

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June-July 2017, no. 392
Varun Ghosh reviews 'Audacity: How Barack Obama defied his critics and created a legacy that will prevail' by Jonathan Chait and 'We Are The Change We Seek: The speeches of Barack Obama' edited by E.J. Dionne Jr and Joy-Ann Reid

What is Barack Obama’s legacy? That deceptively simple question forms the subject of Jonathan Chait’s new book ...

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Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi & How The Hell Did This Happen? by by P.J. O’Rourke

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May 2017, no. 391
James McNamara reviews 'Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus' by Matt Taibbi and 'How The Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016' by P.J. O’Rourke

Beneath a frantic veneer of normalcy, American politics is not okay. It is as if Punch and Judy have careened out of a dive bar, tripped down the rabbit hole, smashed head-first through the looking glass, and found themselves running all three branches of government. Core to this is that unlikely combination of words, President Donald Trump.

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The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston

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October 2016, no. 385
David Smith reviews 'The Making of Donald Trump' by David Cay Johnston

This is an angry book. David Cay Johnston has been doing investigative reporting on Donald Trump's business practices for nearly three decades, and this book is a compilation of ...

... (read more)

Dark Money: The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right by Jane Mayer

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October 2016, no. 385
James McNamara reviews 'Dark Money: The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right' by Jane Mayer

When I arrived in America, green card in hand, I soon got down to my favourite pastime: discussing politics over grain-based liquor. I was surprised to find that President Barack ...

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