Adam Hochschild on American Midnight and Democracy’s Crises
Saturday, May 6 | 12:30 PM - 1:30 PMBrower Center - Goldman Theater
- Current Affairs
- History & Biography
In American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, award-winning historian and journalist Adam Hochschild brings alive the horrifying yet inspiring four years following the U.S. entry into the First World War, spotlighting forgotten repression while celebrating an unforgettable set of Americans who strove to fix their fractured country—and showing how their struggles still guide us today.
A deadly virus claims hundreds of thousands of lives. Militant nationalist groups are on the rise, and self-appointed vigilantes take the law into their own hands. Mobs burn Black churches, and and newspapers and magazines are banned from the mail. Brutal foreign wars rage, as do domestic wars against immigrants, labor, and people of color. When the government steps in, it’s often to fan the flames.
Hochschild calls the brief and appalling period between 1917 and 1921 “the Trumpiest period of American history before Trump.” With a slide show to accompany his vivid storytelling and analysis of a nation on the brink, Hochschild follows a diverse and colorful cast of characters, including the sphinx-like Woodrow Wilson, the fiery antiwar activist Emma Goldman, labor champion Eugent Debs, a little-known bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover, turncoat undercover agents, and more. Arrive early to this program; Hochschild’s festival events fill up fast!
Introduced by Monika Bauerlein, CEO of Mother Jones.
Book signing information: Bookshop West Portal, at the venue