How did the divisions between left and right get so extreme? Are we, as some say, on the brink of another civil war? Separating the rhetoric from the reality has always been a challenge — and in today’s media landscape it’s even harder. But for anyone who wants to find a path to coexistence and common ground, there’s hope: in the form of these helpful books by some insightful authors.
This may not be a long list, but it’s a mighty one: the authors range from a sports marketing pioneer turned active philanthropist to a renowned journalist who’s become a household name to a retired physician and ethicist, to a renown historian and constitutional scholar. As a group they bring a welcome range of perspectives and reminders. So take a look and take heart: there are solutions to every problem, even the one where half the country hates the other half. Knowledge isn’t just power — it’s the key to coexisting, especially today. And remembering our own history means we won’t necessarily make the mistake of repeating it.
Reimagining America’s Dream: Making It Attainable for All by Dr. Bernie Mullin is a roadmap to healing America’s divides. Mullin brings an immigrant’s perspective: he doesn’t just take democracy for granted, or the ability to achieve the American Dream. Having elevated his sports marketing firm to an empire and changed the game in terms of how franchises attract audiences, he turned his sights to fixing his adopted home. Witnessing its unravelling prompted inspiration: empire or not, he had more to do. He created this book around his prescriptions for healing a divided nation, with practical steps and plans for issues from poverty to crime to inequality in education.
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation by Lyle Greenfield is just what its title says: a well-considered strategy for closing the cultural and political divide. Greenfield is no armchair pundit: he’s held jobs from construction to sales to copywriting to music production to wine. He approaches his task with a bit of humor, a sense of someone who’s had their feet on the ground, and a palpable sense of exasperation for the extremes on both left and right. Among his tenets: democracy is an action, and people need to vote to enable it to survive. Also: the rhetoric coming out of political campaigns (and politicians in office) is doing no one any good.
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, by Rachel Maddow is a true American story from World War II with a profound lesson for the country now. Politics aside, it delves into a little known but dangerous effort to undermine the U.S. war effort and the importance of the Allies. What makes it a cautionary tale is that it was — on the outside, a seeming fringe movement but on the inside, a supremely well-organized and financed campaign to take down democracy, increase antisemitism, gut Americans’ faith in their elected leaders, and ultimately overthrow the U.S. government and install a dictatorship. If this sounds familiar, it should. That it turned out some high-ranking government officials shouldn’t be a surprise either. This is an important book for looking at just how fragile democracy is — and how we can protect it, no matter party affiliation.
“Human Ethics” by Carl G. Schowengerdt is another remarkable look at human history — taking a longer view — and contains a heartfelt call to action for the future as well. Schowengerdt was a surgeon from a family of Methodist clergy. While he gravitated to science and healing by medicine, his grasp of ethics and morals has remained firm his entire life. His exploration of what happens when humans are galvanized by a cauldron of rights, wrongs, must-do’s, religions, theologies, rules, and greed is downright arresting. Schowengerdt shows the folly of staying polarized and why it’s so hard for us to let go of our doctrines and beliefs. He also makes an impassioned case for adopting a universal set of ethics — immutable and independent of religious or social influence. If we can do that, he writes, we can save the world.
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson looks at the recent schisms in America with a historian’s eye. Richardson traces recent threats to democracy back to the origins of the country, connecting polarization now to divisions then — and showing the power of intentional, strategic disinformation to undermine America’s faith in its own republic. “United” isn’t a given, as the book shows, and decade after decade, the country has faced tests and challenges that have only intensified. For anyone looking for ways to re-unite a divided country, it starts with knowledge — and action.
The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Amendments, and Selections from The Federalist Papers, by Richard Beeman is on this list for one reason. It’s what our democracy is based on. There have been endless distortions of the contents of the U.S. Constitution over the years, and it pays to go back to the document itself. Beeman, an expert on the subject whose appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was a breakthrough — and clarified misassumptions and misunderstandings for millions that day. He not only provides commentary and explanation on these documents themselves, he takes readers into Supreme Court decision-making and shows how they relate (and interpret) the law of the land. Again: knowledge is power, and so is going back to the actual foundation of our democracy.
While these books may not all specifically aim to help use unite our country with tangible strategies — though many do — they all shed light on the power of information. They remind us that democracy takes time, takes effort, and takes vigilance — and depends on citizens being united in its importance over all, no matter their personal beliefs.
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