Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies--sometimes realities--of violence.

Across the country, men "of God" glorify materialism, a gluttony of the soul, while citing Scripture and preparing for civil war--a firestorm they long for as an absolution and exaltation. Lies, greed, and glorification of war boom through microphones at hipster megachurches that once upon a time might have preached peace and understanding. Political rallies are as aflame with need and giddy expectation as religious revivals. At a conference for incels, lonely single men come together to rage against women. On the Far Right, everything is heightened--love into adulation, fear into vengeance, anger into white-hot rage. Here, in the undertow, our forty-fifth president, a vessel of conspiratorial fears and fantasies, continues to rise to sainthood, and the insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, killed on January 6 at the Capitol, is beatified as a martyr of white womanhood.

Framing this dangerous vision, Sharlet remembers and celebrates the courage of those who sing a different song of community, and of an America long dreamt of and yet to be fully born, dedicated to justice and freedom for all.

Exploring a geography of grief and uncertainty in the midst of plague and rising fascism, The Undertow is a necessary reckoning with our precarious present that brings to light a decade of American failures as well as a vision for American possibility.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Prelude: Our Condition(ix)
• I Day-O: On Hope
• 1 Voice and Hammer(3)
• 2 On the Side of Possibility(32)
• II Dream On: On Vanity
• 3 Heavy with Gold(45)
• 4 Ministry of Fun(63)
• 5 Whole Bottle of Red Pills(85)
• 6 The Trumpocene(107)
• 7 Tick-Tock(136)
• III Goodnight, Irene: On Survival
• 8 The Undertow(147)
• 9 The Great Acceleration(270)
• 10 The Good Fight Is the One You Lose(318)
• Acknowledgments(335)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A National Magazine Award-winning journalist whose The Family served as the basis of a Netflix documentary series, Sharlet explores a splintering nation from the perspective of gender, faith, and money. In particular, as he attends to the religious aspects of Trump rallies in 2016 and 2020, he looks at Christian churches that preach hate while fostering materialism and the Right's near-deification of Donald Trump.

Publishers Weekly Review

Reporter and photographer Sharlet (The Family) probes the intersections of faith and right-wing politics in these meditative essays. Profiling Trump supporters who believe they must save the nation from unseen evil forces, churchgoers who hope to emulate the lavish lifestyles of their pastors, and "manosphere" bloggers who insist that the most oppressed group in modern America is the white cisgender male, Sharlet notes a shared desire among his subjects to achieve the greatness they feel they've been denied. Trump and his followers subscribe to "the prosperity gospel, the American religion of winning," which has roots in Norman Vincent Peale's "applied Christianity," while Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr., leader of Vous Church in Miami, sells a specific, celebrity-infused brand of "hipster Christendom," which encourages followers to "bask in his glamour and become ever so slightly glamorous themselves." Elsewhere, Sharlet discusses how Ashli Babbitt, who was killed during the January 6 Capitol riot, has become a modern-day martyr for the right. An excellent interviewer, Sharlet elicits eye-opening commentary from Trump rallygoers, militia members, QAnon conspiracists, teenage pro-choice protestors, and more. Poetic descriptions of America's landscape and history punctuate Sharlet's unsettling insights into the undercurrents of fear, isolation, and anger coursing through the country. It's a jaw-dropping portrait of a country on the edge. Photos. (Mar.)

CHOICE Review

The Undertow adds to the growing number of books examining the fractured nation that characterizes the present condition in American political and cultural life. Sharlet (Dartmouth College), the author or editor of eight books, attempts to understand how a large segment of Americans turned their distrust in the federal government into paranoia and fantasy. The author's trek into the heartland of the US led him to interview MAGA followers at political rallies and religious revivals, ultimately alerting readers that the existing divisions in the US will not be readily resolved by convincing large bodies of Americans that what they believe is not subject to rational discourse. Rather, conspiracy theories and fantasies govern responses to a crisis that Sharlet warns is leading to a civil war. His chapter "The Trumpocene" should be required reading for everyone concerned about the future of democracy. In it, Sharlet shows that Trump's followers see him as the instrument of God sent to cleanse the US from the "cannibalistic" Democratic Party and that Ashli Babbitt, an insurrectionist killed on January 6, 2021, is hailed as a martyr of white womanhood. This is crucial reading. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. --Jack Robert Fischel, emeritus, Millersville University

Booklist Review

The insurrection on January 6, 2021, did not spring forth from Trump's forehead fully formed and ready for battle like Athena, sporting conspiracy theories instead of wisdom. Anger on the far right had been building for years before Trump's candidacy. Journalist Sharlet (This Brilliant Darkness, 2020) is the tour guide for the "Trumpocene," reporting from the lion's den of Trump rallies, fundamentalist churches, "the manosphere," seedy internet spaces, and prosperity gospel tent revivals. Traveling through the interior of divided America and asking people about the potential for civil war, Sharlet blends reportage with philosophical meditations and many clever turns of phrase. He identifies the titular undercurrent of fascism, rage, and paranoia backed by huge stockpiles of guns and organized by greedy charlatans masquerading as men of God and self-proclaimed militia leaders who threaten the very existence of American democracy. Sharlet also looks into the self-caused martyrdom of Ashli Babbitt, shot on January 6 inside the Capitol, and her significance to insurrectionist lore. This is a grim but necessary examination of democracy's potential assassins, leavened by Sharlet's incredible storytelling and acute observations.

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Jeff Sharlet is the New York Times best-selling author of six books, including This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers and The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, adapted into a Netflix documentary series. His report on LGBTIQ+ rights around the world has received the National Magazine Award, the Molly Ivins Prize, and Outright International's Outspoken Award. His writing and photography have appeared in many publications, including Vanity Fair, for which he is a contributing editor; the New York Times Magazine; GO; Esquire; Harper's Magazine; and VQR, for which he is an editor at large. He is the Frederick Sessions Beebe '35 Professor in the Art of Writing at Dartmouth College, where he lives in the woods with many animals.