Evan osnos – wildland

Many Americans know exactly how their society ended up in its current state of dysfunction and division: it’s all thanks to the Other Party, and the irresponsibility or evil of its politicians and voters. But there are also those with no clear theory of what went wrong. Many middle-aged political moderates, for instance, spent the […]

Jon Sopel – Unpresidented

What is the point, really, in 2021, of a British journalist in the United States? With no language barrier to straddle, and all the cultural cross-pollination of the internet – including easy access to the work of the US’s own, better-funded and more knowledgeable journalists – what can these interlopers add to the picture? Perhaps […]

Dems in Vegas

Nevada is the least talked about and least visited of the early states, despite being the biggest general-election battleground, and the most ethnically diverse. The reason for this seems to be that Nevada is so dominated by Las Vegas, and the wider American public simply doesn’t consider Las Vegas to be a real place […]

Tony Horwitz – Spying on The South

In the early 1850s, as America slid towards civil war, a young reporter for what was then the New-York Daily Times journeyed through the slave states. He hoped to gain a “reliable understanding of the sentiments and hopes & fears” among their people, and “promote the mutual acquaintance of the North and South”. What he saw of […]

UNITE THE RIGHT 2

There was great anxiety over turnout among the organisers of the white power rally “Unite the Right 2,” the follow-up to the infamous event in Charlottesville last year. Key members of the movement, also known as the alt-right, were snubbing the event. “We do not want the image of being a bunch of weird losers […]

Trump’s Action Movies

In Hollywood action movies the good guy always wins, and America always wins. How they win varies; why they win is seldom questioned: they are, therefore they win. For the past year, Donald Trump has been running a campaign for president on the same principles: Donald Trump always wins, therefore he will win the election; when […]