This set contains two books: "The Divided Ground: A New History of the United States, Volumes I and II" and "Bottom of the Barrel: The Underbelly of America".
"The Divided Ground: A New History of the United States, Volumes I and II": A history of America that takes a hard look at the impact of Donald Trump’s election as president!
From Columbus to Trump, this book offers a sweeping account of America’s development and social divisions. It is the labor of Jill Lepore, one of today’s most important American historians.
Unlike any previous history of the United States, it reframes the story around two themes: consensus and division.
Beginning in 1492, the book traces the nation’s founding, wars, and development, as well as its role in major world events.
The author sees American history as a vast experiment in human politics, built on three ideals: political equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty. The book chronicles more than 400 years of questions about the experiment’s origins, progress, and consequences.
"Bottom of the Barrel: The Underbelly of America":
A penetrating look at society’s lowest strata, using photographs and words to reveal a portrait of American society that is both authentic and deeply divided.
A book that captures the “despair and resilience” of people at the bottom. Their despair and resilience are not unique to America, but are shared by the world’s most vulnerable.
When people think of America, they often picture Manhattan’s gleaming skyscrapers and Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology. That is certainly part of the picture, but it is not the whole story. Driven by guilt over his work in finance, a Wall Street trader set out to explore the America beyond the central business districts. In "Bottom of the Barrel: The Underbelly of America", he uses photographs and words to portray a society that is both divided and real, and offers thoughtful ideas on how to bridge the gap between social classes.
