[…] It is not the American deep state that is the problem, but rather America’s deep history.
Nick Bryant
Nations born out of war often retain the violent scars of their turbulent history. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the United States of America, where unfortunately division, mistrust and misinformation are the norm of its society today. Nick Bryant’s new book, The Forever War – America’s Unending Conflict With Itself (2024), is a masterful and detailed critical analysis of American politics and governance today, and how contemporary America – political, social, and economic – is unfortunately a hostage of its racist and violent past.
The book itself is a blend of both American history and its effect on American politics and society today. Throughout the ten chapters of the book, Bryant’s writing style is generally to illustrate a particular contemporary issue, and then provide the historical context and origins. Important topics covered include the creation of the United States by the Founding Fathers; the history of executive and Presidential power; the history of insurrection and rebellion; slavery and the Civil War; guns; abortion; civil rights and race issues; culture wars; and the increasingly political split between the two major parties.
There is clearly a lot to cover here which can be overwhelming for new audiences not familiar with American politics – however Bryant does an excellent job in exploring these issues in detail, whilst also making it easy to comprehend and understand. Of particular interest (to me) was the chapter titled ‘American Authoritarianism‘ – in which, throughout history, successive American presidents have used executive/presidential power to overrule norms and conventions in the Constitution, or bypass blocks by Congress or the Supreme Court. An example of this was during the presidency of Frankin D. Roosevelt, who issued over 300 executive orders a year to enact his New Deal reforms, bypassing Congress. When this was challenged by the Supreme Court, he tried to stack the court with up to six new justices, only for the bill defeated in the Senate. Or the fact that FDR signed an executive order in 1942, where over 125,000 Japanese-Americans, most of whom were American citizens, were interned in concentration camps in America until the end of WWII. Such examples of this overuse of authoritarian power, although best exemplified in Donald Trump today, are unfortunately frequent through a succession of American presidents dating back to Andrew Jackson.
The history of violence, insurrection and rebellion is another important topic and one that is particularly relevent today. Bryant illustrates how January 6th, 2021, was in fact an insurrection with many precedents and previous examples. Whilst the Revolutionary War, American Civil War and the two World Wars are well known to many, less well known are the numeous smaller incidents of racial violence scattered throughout American history. An example is the Tulsa race massacre of 1921- one of America’s worst hate crimes in which a white supremacist mob torched an entire Black neighbourhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with an estimated 300 black deaths. For many years, the event was omitted from local, state and national histories, and was largely forgotten until the late 20th century. Or the fact that four American presidents have been assassinated whilst in office, with many more having been the target of assassinations (e.g Nixon, Reagan, Trump).
The Forever War – America’s Unending Conflict With Itself is masterful political research and critical analysis of the highest standard. It is well researched, comprehensive, clear and easy to understand for a general audience, and should be read by anyone wanting to better understand the America of today.
Rating: 9/10
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-forever-war-9781761048623
Andrew Reviews 