American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People

I agree with about 95 percent of what he’s written. I’ve been exposed to most of these phases of American history from other reading and I’ve been asking myself lately, “Where is the greatness? What is American exceptionalism based on?” This book confirmed my doubts and fears. I would have shifted some of the emphasis in this book from race to class. Sexton correctly identified the founders’ fears of the common people and the fact that they designed our Constitution and system of government around keeping the will of the common people at bay. We’ve been dealing within those boundaries ever since. While race is a crucial dividing line between the common people, it’s not the source of our collective sickness. A government that works against all of us and that is in thrall to the most wealthy and powerful – that is the source. The book lacked solutions. That’s my other criticism of it. It was gloom and doom from beginning to end. There were very few glimmerings of light in his tale of American history and little hope for the future. It’s a horror story. Be scared. Be very scared —, is the takeaway message here. How do we start again? How can we fix this? I still don’t know.

Informative! Cogent overview of the country\’s WS foundation and how WS are now intent on destroying it to maintain WS. Interesting history about Lincoln\’s evolving campaign platform. The narration is excellent. I wish the book went deeper into today\’s WS movement, the similarities with the country\’s conditions before the civil war, and how the country may be ripe for another.

I loved every chapter from our past to our present. Every American needs to listen to this book to understand how we got here and how we can rise to be the democracy we thought we were, but always failed to be.

Eye opening, truthful look at US History from the Revolution to Donald Trump. Should be read by all who care about the future of our country.

For a concise, accurate history of the United States that helps understand how we got to now, this book is a good place to start. The narration is well done and easy to listen to. Recommended. For those who read a lot of history and look at America today, a nagging question often enters the mind. Did the post WWII United States represent a new normal or an ephemeral anomaly? Baby Boomers were born into a world with strong unions that had made the workplace safer and guaranteed a certain quality of life, including both living wages and a secure retirement. All gone now. The federal government was seen as competent and able to accomplish grand undertakings like fighting a depression, winning a two-front war, and putting a man on the moon. No more. For those of us who grew up learning the post-war history and believing that was an accurate portrayal of America, we have been subject to a bit of cognitive whiplash. Unions have been decimated and chances for good wages or a secure future along with them. Our recent unnecessary wars have included for-profit mercenaries rather than just good old American boys serving their country. As for a man on the moon, private companies handle the nation\’s space launches now. What happened? Sexton does a good job of delivering a concise and accurate narrative of American history. This is not a glorified history nor an entirely America-bashing one. Rather, this is a story about how, just maybe, what our nation seems to have become is what it always was–a system set up to serve the needs of the wealthy. If it feels like the United States has become a nation of the businessmen, by the businessmen, for the businessmen, maybe that\’s because it has always been that. The post-war boom years when a rising tide truly lifted all boats may have been the anomaly, not the norm. What we have witnessed since the mid-1970s may be a return to that normal, according to the author\’s narrative. One word of criticism. Although this book is largely accurate form start to finish, the writing has an America-bashing feel from time to time. I don\’t think it\’s intended that way on the whole, but it will be attacked as such. My wish for intelligent writers like Sexton is to find a way to reach those readers who truly need to hear this message. Scholarly types and many liberals are aware of this story. Many conservatives and less well educated Americans are not, but need to be.

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