4/5

Rather difficult to evaluate, though I did really enjoy it. Hochschild definitely has a very particular style, and I can see how it could be rather grating for some particularly since these are not short books. However, compared to a lot of pop history out there, there is a lot of good analysis happening here and a compelling set or arguments about historical memory. This books is ideological, frankly a lot of the best works are and don’t shy away from that fact or pretend the author is some carta rosa. I personally find the life of Eugene Debs very compelling and love a good radical history, so that is going to color how I interpret Hochschild’s work.

With all of those qualifiers being spelled out, I still think this is a really compelling work. I think he could have expanded on a thesis of Redeemer politics finding a new synthesis across the United States with red baiting as a central driving force. However, this isn’t a book about Reconstruction, despite it still looming large in 1919. The author looks at the contradictions of WW1 America directly in the face and spells them out for you, which I think should be done more often. Americans will not understand the country we live in until these contradictions are discussed as the seriously illiberal and authoritarian tendencies that they are. I think it is obvious why in November 2024 this matters.