Illiberal America

A History

By: Steven Hahn

Narrated by: Mitch Crawford

If your reaction to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was to think, 'That's not us,' think again: in Illiberal America, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian uncovers a powerful illiberalism as deep seated in the American past as the founding ideals.

Driven by popular movements and implemented through courts and legislation, illiberalism is part of the American bedrock. The United States was born a republic of loosely connected states and localities that demanded control of their domestic institutions, including slavery. As white settlement expanded west and immigration exploded in eastern cities, the democracy of the 1830s fueled expulsions of Blacks, Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons, and abolitionists.

After the Civil War, southern states denied new constitutional guarantees of civil rights and enforced racial exclusions in everyday life. Illiberalism was modernized during the Progressive movement through advocates of eugenics who aimed to reduce the numbers of racial and ethnic minorities.

The turmoil of the 1960s enabled George Wallace to tap local fears of unrest and build support outside the South, a politics adopted by Richard Nixon in 1968. Today, with illiberalism shaping elections and policy debates over guns, education, and abortion, it is urgent to understand its long history, and how that history bears on the present crisis.

©2024 Steven Hahn (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Excellent and important Am history

The confederate nazi American goon impulse has always been here and entwined and interacting with our progress to a republic with liberty and justice for all. Keep the nihilistic impulse down in the hole.

Comprehensive American History

A thorough analysis of US Illiberal history presented in a collection of essays. I'm purchasing the print version of this ASAP

A good title with a vague content

Very disappointed. The author constantly drifts away from his title/theme. The book is disjointed and loses all focus as the chapters roll by. I have read many books on US political history and this book is one of the worst.

Very slow moving

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this. I loved the idea of the book, but the progress of the ideas presented by the author proceeds about a half-inch at a time. Given that this is a 17-hour audiobook, there's a lot of time set aside for them, But be prepared, folks. This isn't a quick read by any stretch. And it also feels like an academic course and not a book.

I'll stick with it for a little longer. I don't know how long, though.