Book Review: The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and How to Fix It

 

The Reckoning is a book from 2021 by Mary Trump, the niece of the former (and unfortunately current) "president", whom she only refers to by his first name. It is, in part, a follow-up to her book "Too Much and Never Enough," which gave an inside look at life in her family, at least as she experienced it, and explained a lot about why the members of the family, including her uncle, are the way they are. And, it is, in part, a history lesson that rarely, if ever, gets taught in America. 

This book looks at the history of the United States as a whole, especially the period after the Civil War, to explain why the country got to a point where a person like t***p ever got anywhere near the White House. She specifically points to the failure of the United States to hold the traitorous Confederates like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis accountable for their crimes as a through-line to not holding Nixon accountable for his, and allowing t***p to skate by (at least so far) for his. She does a very good job breaking down actual American history (what the RWNJs call critical race theory) and how the slaves were freed with no assistance afterward, and then held down by what became a fascist state in the south and ignored by Northerners who did not care what came of them after being freed. She kind of bounces back and forth between a history lesson and the trump administration policies that ultimately flowed from the ashes of that history.

While she does discuss specific aspects of the t***p administration (with a heavy emphasis on the final year or so) and t***p himself (again exposing just how big a fraud he actually is) the focus is more on the system that allowed him to come to power and the hold he has over the republican party and his drooling fans (most of whom he does not give two shits about). She, of course, heavily criticizes her uncle, but also criticizes past leaders, democrat and republican, for fostering a system that allowed the country to get to the ultra-polarized and dangerous state that it is in. She is very blunt in her criticism and does not sugarcoat or sanitize it.

It is a very short book (about 178 pages) and a fairly quick read. If you read quickly, it can easily be read in a day. Readability-wise, the only comment I have is that the font they used is pretty small, so if you are at the reading glasses stage of your life, it may not be easy on your eyes. It is a book that serves both as a history lesson and a warning. Unfortunately, not enough people heeded the warning, and we are where we are now. While the time to read it was back in 2021, it is worth reading today.