MARK
STEIN
Synopsis
from Goodreads: In American
Panic , New
York Times bestselling
author Mark Stein traces the history and consequences of American
political panics through the years. Virtually every American, on one
level or another, falls victim to the hype, intensity, and propaganda
that accompanies political panic, regardless of their own personal
affiliations. By highlighting the similarities between American
political panics from the Salem witch hunt to present-day vehemence
over issues such as Latino immigration, gay marriage, and the
construction of mosques, Stein closely examines just what it is that
causes us as a nation to overreact in the face of widespread and
potentially profound change. This book also devotes chapters to
African Americans, Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons, Jews,
Chinese and Japanese peoples, Communists, Capitalists, women, and a
highly turbulent but largely forgotten panic over Freemasons.
Striking similarities in these diverse episodes are revealed in
primary documents Stein has unearthed, in which statements from the
past could easily be mistaken for statements today. As these
similarities come to light, Stein reveals why some people become
panicked over particular issues when others do not.
Stats
for my copy:
Hardback, St. Martin's Press, 2014.
How
acquired: Via BookCrossing.
First
Line: Political panic, the
irrational fear that one's government is in danger, is by no means
unique to any country.
My
thoughts: Five
chapters in (84 pages), I finally admitted to myself that this book
was boring me to pieces. I was still interested to read about the
women, so flipped ahead to the chapter, " Woman Suffrage",
but one page in that interest faded.
There
are parts of the book where the author talks about specific people,
and the events that happened to and around them, and those parts kept
my interest. But the rest of the book, dry and repetitive. (I'm
actually sick of seeing the word "panic".)
An
ambitious project, that in the hands of someone like Mary Roach or
Barbara Ehrenreich, could have been fascinating.
