Description
Book SynopsisDonald Trump is eroding the rule of law! We've heard it said many times, and we can feel it in our guts. But what does "rule of law" really mean? And what happens when it breaks down? From Richard Painter, a senate candidate and law professor who served as White House chief ethics counsel under President George W. Bush, and
New York Times bestselling author Peter Golenbock,
American Nero is an in-depth exploration the rule of law—the legal bedrock on which this country was founded.
Painter and Golenbock present a clear description of rule of law—arguably the single most important principle underlying our civilization. They also describe the abuses of power that have occurred throughout our nation's history. Beginning in Puritan New England with the infamous Salem Witch Trials,
American Nero makes vivid stops at The Red Scare of the 1920s, Japanese-American internment, the McCarthy Era, and, much more recently, President Trump's attempt to violate the First Amendment by banning Muslims from entering the US.
While Trump is not the first offender, he is arguably the most blatant, and this unflinchingly honest and insightful work presents in devastating detail the ways in which our current president has trampled the rule of law with his attacks on the freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the autonomy of the justice department.
This is not a book about right vs. left —instead, it is about the rule of law, a principle that transcends partisan politics, and how vital it is to the survival of our country. This book serves as a call-to-action, looking ahead to a brighter future for our country, one where citizens and officials alike protect our rights and honor their responsibilities.
Timely and revealing,
American Nero shares the lessons of history and lays the framework for returning to a society that respects the rule of law—an America that is consistent with our Founding Fathers' vision of a genuinely free nation.
Trade Review"A quintessential book! Usually, political experts do not understand or appreciate enough of the psychological domain, and psychological experts enough of the political domain, for the two areas to meet. This has proven a debilitating deficiency in the era of Donald Trump. Richard Painter and Peter Golenbock take an important step to correcting this . . . Through parallels with this sick presidency, they issue a stark warning before we go the same route as two other empires that collapsed, both more established and longer in duration than we so far, because of a leader's psychological defects."
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Bandy X. Lee, professor at Yale School of Medicine and editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump "Whenever Richard Painter appears in public to offer his lacerating opinions on Donald Trump's unethical actions, I stop to listen. In this revealing book, Richard Painter and Peter Golenbock place those sharp opinions in a fascinating historical context."
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David Maraniss, author of The Red Scare and My Father Table of ContentsContents
Introduction Three Narcissists: One Ancient, One Colonial, and One Modern
Chapter 1 The Rule of Law in America
Chapter 2 Assaults on the Rule of Law in Early America
Chapter 3 The Civil War and Its Legacy
Chapter 4 Immigration, the Red Scare, and Japanese American Internment
Chapter 5 Russian Assault on the Rule of Law
Chapter 6 The Nazi Assault on the Rule of Law
Chapter 7 McCarthyism
Chapter 8 Race and the Rule of Law
Chapter 9 The Phony War: Science vs. Religion
Chapter 10 The Stain of Vietnam
Chapter 11 Tricky Dick and Dirty Tricks
Chapter 12 Iran Contra
Chapter 13 The Clinton Impeachment
Chapter 14 W
Chapter 15 “But Her Email . . .”
Chapter 16 Who Is Donald Trump?
Chapter 17 A Man of Many Assets or a Foreign Asset?
Chapter 18 Draining the Swamp
Chapter 19 The Steele Dossier and More: The Trump-Russia Connection
Chapter 20 Russia Hacks the World
Chapter 21 Putin Crowns Our President
Chapter 22 Lies, Alternative Facts, Fake News, and the Free Press
Chapter 23 Trump the Campaigner
Chapter 24 Blowing Up Bridges, Building Walls
Chapter 25 Two Tragic Figures
Chapter 26 Robert Mueller: Trump’s Worst Nightmare
Chapter 27 The Battle to Stop Robert Mueller
Chapter 28 The Supreme Court
Chapter 29 Barr’s Inside Job
Chapter 30 The Mueller Report
Chapter 31 Ukraine, China, and More
Conclusion Looking Ahead
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
