(EVEN WHEN THEY LOSE ELECTIONS), subtitled “The Battles That Define America from Jefferson’s Heresies to Gay Marriage”
(HarperOne, Oct 2016, 326pp, including 62p acknowledgements, notes, and index.)
I’ve mentioned this book a few times, the first time even before it was published (in Dec 2014), and I finally sat down to read it closely a few weeks ago. Well, a portion of it closely. The book consists of a framing argument, and five chapters of examples covering over 200 pages. I read the framing argument, and the fifth example, totaling about 100 pages. Much of the framing argument was already there from the video I linked in 2014 (though the link has changed to this.)
The gist of the book, in my own terms, begins with the recognition that change is ongoing and inescapable. (At least since the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the expansion of humanity around the globe that has brought previously isolated groups and cultures into contact with one another and so forced them to learn how to get along. This dovetails with my comments two days ago under the “what does this say about us?” article.)
