The Forever War

This week’s review examines “ten unresolved political and social issues” in the US to reveal how the country's history connects to today's divisive political environment.

Posted on September 22, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict With Itself

Bryant, Nick. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024
336p bibl index, 9781399409308 $30.00, 9781399409278

Bryant, a former BBC correspondent, journalist, and historian, has produced a book that illustrates both his critical eye and thoughtful understanding of American history. Without denying some unique characteristics of America’s current problems, his historical training and pellucid writing style contextualize ten unresolved political and social issues that continually bedevil American society. A diachronic analysis of the praxis of American democracy, for instance, shows how the Founders of the nascent republic attempted to circumvent popular will by restricting the vote to white men of property, an attitude that resembles the current struggle over the suppression of voting rights. The systemic racism of American society, in terms of political and legal rights and socioeconomic opportunities for African Americans, is another unresolved problem. A tracing of the demagoguery, authoritarianism, and extremist violence—whether immantled in nativism, xenophobia, or racism—illustrates the centrality of these ideas and practices in American political history. The originalist school’s (mis)understanding of the intentions of the Founding Fathers regarding the Second Amendment has distorted reasoned discussions of gun control. General readers and undergraduate students will greatly benefit from reading and thinking about the arguments presented in this book.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and undergraduates only.
Reviewer: R. T. Ingoglia, St. Thomas Aquinas College
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Political Science – U.S. Politics
Choice Issue: Nov 2024

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