One America

With enormous numbers of new immigrants, America is becoming dramatically more diverse racially, culturally, and ethnically. As a result, the United States faces questions that have profound consequences for its future. What does it mean to be an American? Is a new American identity developing? At the same time, the coherence of national culture has been challenged by the expansion of—and attacks on—individual and group rights, and by political leaders who prefer to finesse rather than engage cultural controversies. Many of the ideals on which the country was founded are under intense, often angry, debate, and the historic tension between individuality and community has never been felt so keenly. In One America?, distinguished contributors discuss the role of national leadership, especially the presidency, at a time when a fragmented and dysfunctional national identity has become a real possibility. Holding political views that encompass the thoughtful left and right of center, they address fundamental issues such as affirmative action, presidential engagement in questions of race, dual citizenship, interracial relationships, and English as the basic language. This book is the first examination of the role of national political leaders in maintaining or dissipating America’s national identity. It will be vital reading for political scientists, historians, policymakers, students, and anyone concerned with the future of American politics and society.

What happens when you speak with Hollywood stars and entertainers—half pro-Trump and half against—posting the question, “Can we talk?” Since the 2016 presidential campaigns, Conservatives, Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, Whites, and non-Whites in America began saying loudly that they are “Fighting for America.” Yet, by the 2020 presidential elections, they were even more divided than united despite all the good intention of the most. Now that America is well into 2021, it is time to yearn for “One America” but without “fighting.” But here is the caveat! To achieve “One America,” the “Trump Phenomena” must first be understood. Next, “Discrimination” and “Racism” in America must be re-visited. After that, “Cancel Culture” and “No-No Rhetoric” must be handled promptly and sensitively. Finally, Hollywood must first embrace #MeToo Movement and then come up with a long-term strategy. Filmmakers of the Trump vs. Hollywood documentary, Daphne Barak and Erbil Gunasti brought on board twenty-four Hollywood stars and entertainers in a documentary to discuss these topics. Half were chosen among pro-Trump, and half against. Daphne interviewed both sides, posing the question: “Can We Talk?” Struggling For One America stands as the genesis of this documentary. This book in that respect points at the presumptive and pretended “Culprits” and “Scapegoats” in the current divide, while focusing on what is obvious. The two White Houses are standing tall, in plain sight, and a step further on the wrong direction from this moment on would be nothing less than repeating history.

Originally released in 2008, this book features the first publication in book form of the Clinton Commission on Race Initiative's report; a foreword by commission chair John Hope Franklin; President Clinton's speech that launched the commission; and other important materials for classes on American race relations. "The report, and this volume, will surely assume a place among the most significant works about race and the persistent challenge of racism in modern American life."--William A. Link, University of Florida

One of the Top 10 Politics and Current Events Books of Fall 2019 (Publishers Weekly) An incisive cultural history that captures a fractious nation through the prism of television and the rattled mind of a celebrity president. Television has entertained America, television has ensorcelled America, and with the election of Donald J. Trump, television has conquered America. In Audience of One, New York Times chief television critic James Poniewozik traces the history of TV and mass media from the Reagan era to today, explaining how a volcanic, camera-hogging antihero merged with America’s most powerful medium to become our forty-fifth president. In the tradition of Neil Postman’s masterpiece Amusing Ourselves to Death, Audience of One shows how American media have shaped American society and politics, by interweaving two crucial stories. The first story follows the evolution of television from the three-network era of the 20th century, which joined millions of Americans in a shared monoculture, into today’s zillion-channel, Internet-atomized universe, which sliced and diced them into fractious, alienated subcultures. The second story is a cultural critique of Donald Trump, the chameleonic celebrity who courted fame, achieved a mind-meld with the media beast, and rode it to ultimate power. Braiding together these disparate threads, Poniewozik combines a cultural history of modern America with a revelatory portrait of the most public American who has ever lived. Reaching back to the 1940s, when Trump and commercial television were born, Poniewozik illustrates how Donald became “a character that wrote itself, a brand mascot that jumped off the cereal box and entered the world, a simulacrum that replaced the thing it represented.” Viscerally attuned to the media, Trump shape-shifted into a boastful tabloid playboy in the 1980s; a self-parodic sitcom fixture in the 1990s; a reality-TV “You’re Fired” machine in the 2000s; and finally, the biggest role of his career, a Fox News–obsessed, Twitter-mad, culture-warring demagogue in the White House. Poniewozik deconstructs the chaotic Age of Trump as the 24-hour TV production that it is, decoding an era when politics has become pop culture, and vice versa. Trenchant and often slyly hilarious, Audience of One is a penetrating and sobering review of the raucous, raging, farcical reality show—performed for the benefit of an insomniac, cable-news-junkie “audience of one”—that we all came to live in, whether we liked it or not.