The Midnight Kingdom

A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis

By: Jared Yates Sexton

Narrated by: Jared Yates Sexton

From the author of American Rule and the host of The Muckrake Podcast, an ambitious account of how white supremacist lies, religious mythologies, and poisonous conspiracy theories built the modern world and threaten to plunge us into an authoritarian nightmare.

To fully understand these strange and dangerous times, Jared Yates Sexton takes a hard look at our nation’s history: namely, the abuses committed by those in power and the comforting stories that shaped the way the West has viewed itself up to the present. As reactionaries and authoritarians cling to myths about “Western civilization,” The Midnight Kingdom exposes how political power, religious indoctrination, and economic dominance have been repeatedly weaponized to oppress and exploit, sounding an alarm for what lies ahead as the current order frays.

Beginning with the Roman Empire and racing through centuries of colonization, war, genocide, and the recurring clashes of progress and regression, Sexton finds our modern world at a crossroads. In an echo of past crises, we have arrived at a time of historic inequality and a fading trust in our institutions. Meanwhile, authoritarianism is gaining momentum and the progress of the twentieth century is being rolled back at dizzying speed. This catastrophic moment holds terrible potential for a return to a totalitarian past or, potentially, a better, realer, more human future. The difference depends on a true reckoning with our history and the larger forces at play or hiding behind this disastrous fantasy of Western superiority.

Bracing and compulsively readable, The Midnight Kingdom takes a critical look at the forces that have shaped human civilization for centuries—and invites us to seek a radically different future.

A Must Read

This important work needs to be read and spread by all serious people wishing to understand the brutal truth of western civilization. While many will no doubt ridicule this charting of our history, it will be because this book tells the truth. It is the truth many of us have suspected all along and, thankfully, it is finally being stated right out loud.

Jared Yates Sexton also signals ways for us - we the people - to create a new and healthier human civilization. May it be so.

A must read

A look at History not available in most books. Gave me a new way of seeing the world not from the view of the “winners” but a look at consequences and the unintended results of actions, behaviors, and beliefs. I believe everyone should read this book but not everyone will like it

Those Who Do Not Know The Past...

Jared Yates Sexton provides a compelling historical overview of the insanity that is Christian conservatism, further reinforcing Christopher Hitchens' conclusion that religion poisons everything. From ancient Rome to the modern-day Trump circus, Sexton illustrates how religious nuttery, racism, and Republicanism have become so deeply enmeshed that it is now utterly impossible to have one without the other.

He also shows that not only are modern-day Republican values utterly reprehensible but entirely unoriginal, with their apocalyptic world views intertwined with their skewed views of patriotism virtually unchanged and unchallenged for centuries. Fitting, I suppose, for such a backwards political party that strives to do little more than usurp power at all costs and turn the clock back to the Dark Ages.

The Midnight Kingdom is, ultimately, Exhibit A for why Republicans so badly want to ban books and endlessly work to undermine and attempt to eradicate science, history, and education.

Too fast

Great book, but the writer reads way too fast.. had to play it at 0.8 speed most of the way through. Great voice, detailed writing, but spoken way too fast.

Important read to prevent history from repeating itself

Important read when it comes to understanding set how we got here. History is most definitely repeating itself. Jared has an incredible way of breaking down and connecting the dots across historical periods.