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veefuller's review against another edition
5.0
Damn.
I have do much respect for any and all journalist who covered the presidential campaigns and elections from 2015 onward. I cannot imagine the levels of abuse hurled at them.
I've been following Jared Yates Sexton for some time on both Twitter and YouTube. This was an eye-opening view of 2015 through Trump's inauguration, and a rather depressing and startling glimpse of those who voted for him.
We have a lot of work to do, y'all.
I have do much respect for any and all journalist who covered the presidential campaigns and elections from 2015 onward. I cannot imagine the levels of abuse hurled at them.
I've been following Jared Yates Sexton for some time on both Twitter and YouTube. This was an eye-opening view of 2015 through Trump's inauguration, and a rather depressing and startling glimpse of those who voted for him.
We have a lot of work to do, y'all.
jamesfigy's review against another edition
5.0
Jared Yates Sexton's telling of the 2016 election gives a spectator's perspective on political rallies, the messiness of relationships between family members and Americans in general during this time, and the ways in which one campaign ignored almost every rule of politics. In the intro to an interview with the author, I compared this novel to his short story "Punch for Punch," saying:
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage explains how everyday Americans’ frustration with the establishment boiled over. It goes without saying that the whole campaign exemplifies how truth is stranger, messier, and less predictable than fiction. But that’s what makes Jared so great at telling it: He takes the fiction writer’s attention to narrative, to backstory, and to causes and effects, and he combines it with the journalist’s thirst to tell real people’s stories and to document a part of history. The new book shows how Americans weren’t happy with our government before the election, aren’t not happy now that it’s in chaos.
Link to our interview: http://bit.ly/2yfbQMd
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage explains how everyday Americans’ frustration with the establishment boiled over. It goes without saying that the whole campaign exemplifies how truth is stranger, messier, and less predictable than fiction. But that’s what makes Jared so great at telling it: He takes the fiction writer’s attention to narrative, to backstory, and to causes and effects, and he combines it with the journalist’s thirst to tell real people’s stories and to document a part of history. The new book shows how Americans weren’t happy with our government before the election, aren’t not happy now that it’s in chaos.
Link to our interview: http://bit.ly/2yfbQMd
loribeth1961's review against another edition
4.0
Have you ever chosen a book simply because the title was irresistible? When I saw "The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage" by Jared Yates Sexton on the bookstore shelf, I had to pull it out for a closer look, simply because of the amazing (if rather ominous-sounding) title. The cover design pulled me in further (not to mention the subject matter).
"The People Are Going to Rise" is Sexton's personal account and analysis of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, which he followed -- on both the Democratic & Republican sides, with the Green Party thrown in for good measure -- for several different publications. (Parts of the book originally appeared in those articles.)
Sexton leans left politically, but grew up in a working-class family in Indiana. He understood where Trump rally attendees were coming from -- even if what he saw and heard there left him shaken. After his live tweets from one Trump rally went viral, he began receiving death threats. He used alcohol to cope. The rage he witnessed and writes about here was also evident on the left (Democrat/Green) side of the equation. (The title of the book comes from a chalk-drawn sidewalk sign he saw at the Democratic National Convention.)
I would recommend this book for anyone wanting a thoughtful, well-written and readable account of what happened in 2016 and why, with a bit of a personal flavour.
"The People Are Going to Rise" is Sexton's personal account and analysis of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, which he followed -- on both the Democratic & Republican sides, with the Green Party thrown in for good measure -- for several different publications. (Parts of the book originally appeared in those articles.)
Sexton leans left politically, but grew up in a working-class family in Indiana. He understood where Trump rally attendees were coming from -- even if what he saw and heard there left him shaken. After his live tweets from one Trump rally went viral, he began receiving death threats. He used alcohol to cope. The rage he witnessed and writes about here was also evident on the left (Democrat/Green) side of the equation. (The title of the book comes from a chalk-drawn sidewalk sign he saw at the Democratic National Convention.)
I would recommend this book for anyone wanting a thoughtful, well-written and readable account of what happened in 2016 and why, with a bit of a personal flavour.
keithlafountaine's review against another edition
5.0
I've read my fair share of books about Trump and the 2016 election. I can confidently say that Jared Yates Sexton's disturbing and incisive book is the most informative -- and the best perspective.
So many books focus on the Clinton campaign's missteps, or Trump's meteoric rise with white voters. However, Sexton focuses on the other factor: the anger that was practically spilling over the edges of country. It was a frustration that was found on both sides, and -- in many ways -- spelled part of Clinton's doom in the general election before the primary season was over.
I think Sexton does a good job at seeing all sides of the situation that created Trump's rise without trying to pretend he is an objective source. In fact, it's his authenticity and honesty that makes this book so good and important.
So many books focus on the Clinton campaign's missteps, or Trump's meteoric rise with white voters. However, Sexton focuses on the other factor: the anger that was practically spilling over the edges of country. It was a frustration that was found on both sides, and -- in many ways -- spelled part of Clinton's doom in the general election before the primary season was over.
I think Sexton does a good job at seeing all sides of the situation that created Trump's rise without trying to pretend he is an objective source. In fact, it's his authenticity and honesty that makes this book so good and important.
biblioneer's review against another edition
5.0
Along with Hayes's A Colony in a Nation, this book is a must read to understanding 2017.
rebekahcraft's review against another edition
4.0
Sexton spent over a year and a half following the political campaign season for the 2016 election. He became famous for live tweeting the abominable hate speech he overheard at a Trump rally. In this book, he attempts to make sense of the election and its outcome. He goes in depth on how social media, fake news, and campaign missteps led to Bernie's and then Hillary's loss and why liberals were blindsided by Trump's win.
This was a bit too soon for me to relive, but I enjoyed the perspective.
This was a bit too soon for me to relive, but I enjoyed the perspective.
sanduskt's review
5.0
This book is a masterwork for understanding the current political climate we find ourselves in as a nation. Jared Yates Sexton recounts life on the road, going from Trump rally to Trump rally and to both political conventions. The overall uniting theme of it all- rage. Rage at Obama, rage at intellectuals, rage at the "establishment", rage at our multicultural/multiethnic/multireligious country - nothing but rage. And Donald Trump, with his blustery declarations, outright lies, aggression, bullshit, and Twitter wars fit the bill for so many who just wanted to be angry. So they rallied around him, knowing he was a bad candidate, knowing he's a bad politician, because he was aggressive and called out what they conceived as the liberal lies.
Our country is in a dark, dark place and it didn't come out of nowhere. It's been brewing in the shadows for the last several decades, behind closed doors and in the darkest corners of cyberspace. In the last eight years it has bubbled and boiled into public view and then exploded from channels like Fox News and Breitbart until it finally oozed out and took over everything. I only hope that we can continue to fight back without becoming overwhelmed.
Read this book. It is a must to not only figure out how we got here, but how to begin fighting back.
Our country is in a dark, dark place and it didn't come out of nowhere. It's been brewing in the shadows for the last several decades, behind closed doors and in the darkest corners of cyberspace. In the last eight years it has bubbled and boiled into public view and then exploded from channels like Fox News and Breitbart until it finally oozed out and took over everything. I only hope that we can continue to fight back without becoming overwhelmed.
Read this book. It is a must to not only figure out how we got here, but how to begin fighting back.
redbecca's review
4.0
an impressionistic representation of the 2016 presidential campaign that includes a chapter on "Bernie or Bust" ppl at the Dem convention as well as a description of the Green Party convention. Some of his impressions really capture a mood or feeling well. As an overall portrait of the zeitgeist, it's good, and I'd recommend it for what it says about the general mood of the electorate. I was at the Disrupt J20 protests and had a very different experience from what he describes - and that is the flaw in reporting based so much on one person's perspective. I don't doubt his experience, but he chased reports of vandalism with other packs of reporters. It was also possible to spend an entire day on the streets of DC among protesters on the day of the inauguration without encountering any vandalism or violence, only to hear about it on the news later. The one thing he does get right about that day is how few Trump supporters were anywhere - they were very much outnumbered by protesters on the streets around the entrances to the mall, where vendors had such a hard time selling MAGA hats that one enterprising dude tried to get people to buy the hats so that they could burn them! The fact that Sexton often describes himself drinking makes me wonder whether he was trying to do a sort of Hunter Thompson treatment, but this book doesn't rise to that level of "gonzo."
mcsmonique's review
5.0
This caught my attention because i’m one of those people mentioned in the book that didn’t understand what led people to elect someone like trump or bolsonaro in brazil. This book has answers for that that aren’t as simple as “people did it just because they’re hateful and there’s no way around it”. I felt like he really explored the psychology and the role of the media behind it. I think this is a must read for everyone and highly recommend following him on twitter too. I thought it was a bit boring in the end, but a few weeks later I still can't stop thinking abt this book.
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