Hiding in plain sight: the invention of Donald Trump and the erosion of America
Description
Instant New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Indie Bound BestsellerBestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American demagogue possible.The story of Donald Trump’s rise to power is the story of a buried American history – buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt. Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy – how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.In Kendzior’s signature and celebrated style, she expertly outlines Trump’s meteoric rise from the 1980s until today, interlinking key moments of his life with the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of our civil liberties by foreign powers. Kendzior also offers a never-before-seen look at her lifelong tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – living in New York through 9/11 and in St. Louis during the Ferguson uprising, and researching media and authoritarianism when Trump emerged using the same tactics as the post-Soviet dictatorships she had long studied.It is a terrible feeling to sense a threat coming, but it is worse when we let apathy, doubt, and fear prevent us from preparing ourselves. Hiding in Plain Sight confronts the injustice we have too long ignored because the truth is the only way forward.
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Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Kendzior (The View from Flyover Country) charts nearly five decades of impropriety, shady business practices, and alleged crimes perpetuated by Donald Trump in this impeccably researched chronicle. Arguing that Trump is a "media-savvy con man" bent on dictatorship, Kendzior explores his protégé relationship with disgraced attorney Roy Cohn and his early dealings with the Soviet Union. She tracks Trump's friendship with convicted underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, noting that in 2016 one of Epstein's victims accused Trump of rape (her lawsuit has since been dropped), and contends that Trump Tower has "effectively functioned as a dorm for the Russian mafia" since Soviet Army veteran and mob figure David Bogatin attempted to launder $6 million by buying five luxury condos in the building in 1984. Kendzior weaves autobiographical sketches and broad overviews of American culture and geopolitical events into her narrative; in many cases, these digressions create a more comprehensive picture, while others, including an extended thread on tabloid "voyeurism," feel like tangents. Political junkies will be familiar with much of Kendzior's claims, but she offers a few surprises and many valuable insights into the president's psychological motivations and methods of manipulation. This comprehensive, page-turning account presents a stark and uncompromising indictment of the Trump presidency as the culmination of a "decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy." (Apr.)
Kirkus Book Review
A scathing indictment of Donald Trump and the "wider movement of white supremacists and international kleptocrats seeking to dismantle Western democracy."In a follow-up to The View From Flyover Country (2018), St. Louis-based Globe and Mail op-ed columnist Kendzior elaborates on her argument that a decadeslong "erosion of American institutions and social trust" paved the way for the present "autocracy, wrapped in a tabloid veneer." Although she reiterates points made by David Cay Johnston and others, Kendzior offers fresh views based on her experiences living in the declining economy of the Midwest and on observations as an academic researcher studying dictatorships in the former Soviet Union. In St. Louis, she watched the growth of increasingly harsh social and economic conditions from 2008 onward, foreshadowing national decline; in Uzbekistan, she witnessed the rise of dictator Islam Karimov, who sought to "make Uzbekistan great again," called independent media "the enemy of the people," persecuted marginalized groups, and abused executive power to enhance his personal wealth. Given those perspectives, the author has been tireless in sounding her dark alarm over the Trump presidency, in both her writing and public appearances. She explores White House nepotism, including the rise of the "rich, connected and unqualified"; Trump's "stripping America down for parts and selling those parts to the highest bidder"; and his close relationship to political operative Roy Cohn, who, since the early 1970s, taught Trump to "counterattack, lie, threaten, sue, and never back down." For decades, Trump "relied on oligarchs and mobsters from the former USSR for support" after being blacklisted by Wall Street following his 1990s bankruptcies. Kendzior also blames the "timid and plodding" Mueller investigation as well as the mainstream news media, "an industry for elites" reluctant to upset social peers.A passionate call for immediate action against the "transnational crime syndicate" that has supplanted the U.S. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Journalist Kendzior (The View from Flyover Country) charts nearly five decades of impropriety, shady business practices, and alleged crimes perpetuated by Donald Trump in this impeccably researched chronicle. Arguing that Trump is a "media-savvy con man" bent on dictatorship, Kendzior explores his protégé relationship with disgraced attorney Roy Cohn and his early dealings with the Soviet Union. She tracks Trump's friendship with convicted underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, noting that in 2016 one of Epstein's victims accused Trump of rape (her lawsuit has since been dropped), and contends that Trump Tower has "effectively functioned as a dorm for the Russian mafia" since Soviet Army veteran and mob figure David Bogatin attempted to launder $6 million by buying five luxury condos in the building in 1984. Kendzior weaves autobiographical sketches and broad overviews of American culture and geopolitical events into her narrative; in many cases, these digressions create a more comprehensive picture, while others, including an extended thread on tabloid "voyeurism," feel like tangents. Political junkies will be familiar with much of Kendzior's claims, but she offers a few surprises and many valuable insights into the president's psychological motivations and methods of manipulation. This comprehensive, page-turning account presents a stark and uncompromising indictment of the Trump presidency as the culmination of a "decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy." (Apr.)
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