Copyright 2018 by Merewether LLC. Published by Random House.
It seems that the purpose of this book is to make us feel better about having Donald Trump as President by pointing out other times in our history when things looked similarly bleak. Because the country has survived other bad times and bad leaders, Meacham tries to give us hope that “this, too, shall pass.” But I found it more depressing than comforting. I honestly hadn’t known much about some of the political travails in our early American history, nor some of the more recent seminal characters like Huey Long. I also hadn’t known the extent of the Jim Crow lynchings by the KKK and others – over 3,500, of which fewer than 100 were prosecuted and 12 were convicted. Depressing.
So the book is an interesting history read. But uplifting? Not for me.
5 out of 10.