LAST BEST HOPE America in Crisis and Renewal

The author deftly defines four Americas: Free America (independent, "don't tread on me"); Real America (Christian nationalist, anti-expertise); Smart America (winners in the meritocracy); Just America (equality overall). He takes on all four while narrating with precision, passion, and empathy, letting the stories and quotations speak for themselves. He delivers this pithy audiobook at a good pace, and the force of his convictions comes through. His historic north stars, Alexis de Tocqueville and Walt Whitman, provide context for his ongoing project of understanding the fractures in our democracy. This provocative audiobook is at its best in its finely crafted profiles of editor/publisher Horace Greeley, labor advocate Frances Perkins, and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Packer's evaluation of the state of contemporary journalism is compelling. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2021]