Holding Together and The Power of Crisis

We are at day two of the Hearings by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Here are a couple of recent non-fiction texts which deal with the contention and conflict facing Americans and global citizens:  

THIS WILL NOT PASS: TRUMP, BIDEN, AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, both reporters for The New York Times, is highly relevant since it deals directly with the 2020 election. That text, which also describes President Biden’s first year in office, received starred reviews from both Kirkus (“Red meat for politics watchers, unsparing in its depiction of a time of torment”) and Publishers Weekly (“Politics junkies should consider this required reading”).

The cover image for HOLDING TOGETHER by John Shattuck, Sushma Raman and Mathias Risse is clever and memorable. The subtitle, “The Hijacking of Rights in America and How to Reclaim Them for Everyone,” reflects the perspective of these authors, all of whom are affiliated with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Across several sections, dealing with the Democratic Process, Equal Protection of Law, Due Process of Law, Speech, Media and Belief, and Privacy, these professors delve into specifics on numerous issues like voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and gun control. They strive to outline the relevant legal positions, including summarizing state and federal regulation. They also provide a series of policy recommendations like “Reframe the Issue: …the concept of gun control is simplistic and unnecessarily contentious and should be replaced by gun safety laws and gun violence prevention laws.” However, these proposals (e.g., “develop media literacy education to assist media consumers to evaluate information and navigate the rapidly changing marketplace of ideas”) are rather general and often lack a specific call to action or focal point for the average reader. HOLDING TOGETHER does provide a well-documented overview of threats to individual rights. The tone is a bit academic and certainly left leaning, although supported by extensive research with roughly thirty percent of the text devoted to notes and an index. These authors highlight connections between today and past actions which will be of particular interest to History and Civics teachers.

THE POWER OF CRISIS by Ian Bremmer is intended to note “How Three Threats – and Our Response – Will Change the World.” Bremmer, president and founder of global consulting firm Eurasia Group, spends the first chapter looking at “Two Collisions – us vs them, at home and abroad.” He explores our domestic conflict, including widening wealth gaps and increasing income inequality, and also calls China “a police state,” noting that its rise offers both opportunity and dangers. Subsequent chapters deal with “Pandemic Politics,” “Climate Emergency,” and "Disruptive Technologies." Unfortunately, it is rather easy to point to the critical issues which Bremmer has seemingly ignored. He only mentions Ukraine in a passing comment about a malware attack and references forced abortions in China – not the increasing restrictions in the United States or on women’s rights in general. He does provide extensive notes and an index to aid researchers. To learn more, view this recent interview with Bremmer from PBS NewsHour: