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The Forever War

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What to expect

From the author of When America Stopped Being Great, an insightful and urgent reassessment of America’s past, present and future – as a country which is forever at war with itself.

The Forever War tells the story of how America’s extreme polarisation is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled and unresolved past.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now the country’s defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the prosecution of Donald Trump and battles over gun rights and abortion raise the spectre of further political violence, and even the possibility of a second civil war.

Nick Bryant explains how the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America’s story. Combining brilliant storytelling, historical research and first-hand reportage, Bryant argues that insurrections, massacres and civil disturbances should sadly not be seen as abnormalities; they are a part of the fabric of the history of America.

The compromises originally designed to hold the union together have never truly been resolved and today, a country that once looked so confidently to the future has become captive to its contentious past.

Critics Review

  • Bryant is a genuine rarity, a Brit who understands America.

    Washington Post

  • America’s story rewritten with remarkable authority and affection. Unflinching and insightful. A great achievement.

    Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent

  • Nick Bryant combines wisdom with humour – this is a must-read book for all those who love America and want it to be healed.

    Justin Webb, presenter of the BBC's Today programme and Americast

  • Crackling with wit, historical understanding and wry insight, Nick Bryant’s brilliant new book demonstrates that the divisions which roil contemporary America are rooted in its deep history. The America that emerges from these pages is one defined by paradox: inspiring and dark, enlightened and violent, open and viciously exclusionary, a nation of effervescent ingenuity hampered by unreformable institutions. Bryant writes with the familiarity of a journalist who has spent decades living in the US but also with the outsider’s capacity for detachment and irony. This is the must-read book about America for 2024.

    Professor Adam Smith, Director of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford

  • What’s gone wrong with America? In this exceptionally thoughtful, astute and moving book, Nick Bryant explores the deep roots of its current discontents, tracing the origins of Trumpism to the very birth of the American republic. Bryant writes as both a keen political reporter and a first-class historian, interweaving past and present to supremely powerful effect. It’s a superb achievement. And as the American people face one of the most crucial elections in their history, nobody with the slightest interest in their future can afford to miss it.

    Dominic Sandbrook, author and historian

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