Wildland
The Making of America's Fury
by Evan Osnos
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Pub Date 16 Sep 2021 | Archive Date 16 Sep 2021
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) | Bloomsbury Publishing
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Description
Evan Osnos moved to Washington, DC, in 2013 after a decade away from the United States. While abroad, he often found himself making a case for America, urging the citizens of Egypt, Iraq or China to trust that even though America had made grave mistakes throughout its history, it aspired to some foundational moral commitments – the rule of law, the power of truth, the right of equal opportunity for all. But when he returned to the United States, he found each of these principles under assault.
In search of an explanation for the crisis, he focused on three places he knew firsthand: Greenwich, Connecticut; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois. Reported over the course of six years, Wildland follows ordinary individuals as they navigate the varied landscapes of twenty-first-century America. Through their powerful, often poignant stories, Osnos traces the sources of America’s political dissolution. He finds answers in the rightward shift of the financial elite in Greenwich; in the collapse of social infrastructure and possibility in Clarksburg; and in the compounded effects of segregation and violence in Chicago. The truth about the state of the nation may be found not in the slogans of political leaders but in the intricate details of individual lives, and in the hidden connections between them.
A dramatic, prescient examination of seismic changes in American politics and culture, Wildland is the story of a crucible, a period bounded by two shocks to America’s psyche, two assaults on the country’s sense of itself: the attacks of September 11 in 2001 and the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Following the lives of everyday Americans in three cities across two decades, Osnos illuminates the country in a startling light, revealing how it lost the moral confidence to see itself as larger than the sum of its parts.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781526635525 |
| PRICE | £20.00 (GBP) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Susan R, Reviewer
This is a fascinating read by Evan Osnos, journalist at the New Yorker, who went to work in the Middle East and China, after 9/11, before returning to Washington in 2013, newly married and ready to rediscover his country. He had spent time while away from the US defending his homeland, but, on return, was confronted by changes. This then is the story of a country, and a time, bounded by 9/11 and attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Osnos uses his own family history to good effect, exploring three different locations important to him and contrasting the lives of the descendants of a man who committed a violent crime on his great-grandfather, with those charged with such assaults today. This enables the author to bring a personal feel to the current injustices in the criminal justice system and to explore themes such as race, inequality and the polarisation of wealth and ideology.
Of course, it is impossible to tell the stories of those years without telling the story of Trump. While working away from the States, Osnos had felt that his country stood for the rule of law, the force of truth and the right to pursue a better life. On his return, it seemed these certainties were under threat. From the popularity of Fox News to the lack of trust in the government, the influence of wealth in politics, a press under attack and – of course, Trump’s ability to appeal to those who felt resentful, neglected, and misused. A base of supporters who were ready to listen and a message which matched the mood; ugly, violent, distrustful…. A mob ready to follow the words of a man who threw out mindless soundbites and encouraged to act without thinking about the implications of what they were doing.
This doesn’t have much in the way of answers, but it may help you understand how, and why, America is currently so polarised and divided. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
