The Reckoning (Trump book)

Last updated

The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal
The Reckoning (Trump book).jpg
First edition (US)
Author Mary L. Trump
LanguageEnglish
Subject Donald Trump [1]
PublishedAugust 17, 2021
Publisher St. Martin's Press (US) [1]
Atlantic Books (UK)
Publication placeUnited States
Pages240 [1]
ISBN 978-1-250278-45-6 (hardcover) [1]

The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal is the second book written by Mary L. Trump about her uncle Donald Trump. Preceded in Mary Trump's bibliography by 2020's Too Much and Never Enough , it was published on August 17, 2021, by St. Martin's Press.

Contents

Synopsis

The Reckoning posits that the United States has suffered trauma from its inception because of its inclusion of systemic racism and its failure to address the existence of white supremacy [a] (exemplified by the election of the author's uncle Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016 and attempts to overturn the 2020 election). Mary Trump discusses the COVID-19 pandemic as a more recent source of trauma and criticizes Donald's response and rhetoric as worsening the crisis. [2] She also argues that her uncle is only pretending to run again in 2024 to raise money, [3] having previously argued that he would be too afraid to lose again. [4] [b]

Themes

Mary Trump argues that much current discord in the United States is the result of its "original sin of slavery" and the persistence of racism and white supremacy, a divide that her uncle Donald has aggravated and exploited. As a result, Americans are collectively suffering from a form of PTSD. [2] [5]

The Guardian called the book "A revealing blend of family lore, history, policy and anger casts light on the background and legacy of Donald Trump." [6]

Reception

Reviews of the book have been mixed. Lloyd Green of The Guardian says "It is a less lurid read [than Too Much and Never Enough] but a darker one too. According to Mary Trump, 'we are heading toward an even darker period in our nation's history. Each of us will see what we will see. Our cold civil war continues.' With her second book, Mary Trump offers food for thought – and grist for the mill." However, Green also says, "Mary Trump puts her positions passionately but perhaps she could pause to consider how such agendas play with voters." [6]

Kirkus Reviews calls it "of value to those pondering what happened for the past five years and whether we can truly heal. She's at her best, and on the firmest of ground, when she lays into her uncle's manifest shortcomings. She says, 'When your motive is not simply winning at all costs but grievance and revenge, you're more dangerous than a straight-up sociopath. Donald is much worse than that—he's someone with a gaping wound where his soul should be.'" [7]

In The Washington Post , political commentator Joe Klein writes: "A great rant can be cathartic, but it needs discipline. Trump is sloppy. There are no footnotes. Too many sentences contain half-truths and gross generalizations, unsupported by facts." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Aint I a Woman?</i> (book) 1981 Black feminist book by bell hooks

Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism is a 1981 book by bell hooks titled after Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. hooks examines the effect of racism and sexism on Black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s. She argues that the convergence of sexism and racism during slavery contributed to Black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society. White female abolitionists and suffragists were often more comfortable with Black male abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, while southern segregationalists and stereotypes of Black female promiscuity and immorality caused protests whenever Black women spoke. Hooks points out that these white female reformers were more concerned with white morality than the conditions these morals caused Black Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Faludi</span> American feminist author and journalist

Susan Charlotte Faludi is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for In the Darkroom, which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinesh D'Souza</span> Indian-American political commentator (born 1961)

Dinesh Joseph D'Souza is an American right-wing political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author and filmmaker. He has made several financially successful films, and written over a dozen books, several of them New York Times best-sellers.

White guilt is a belief that white people bear a collective responsibility for the harm which has resulted from historical or current racist treatment of people belonging to other ethnic groups, as for example in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, European colonialism, and the genocide of indigenous peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Mac Donald</span> American conservative political commentator

Heather Lynn Mac Donald is an American conservative political commentator, essayist, lawyer, and author. She is known for her pro-police views and opposition to criminal justice reform. She is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute think tank and a contributing editor of its City Journal.

Historical trauma or collective trauma refers to the cumulative emotional harm of an individual or generation caused by a traumatic experience or event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Horne</span> American historian (born 1949)

Gerald Horne is an American historian who holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and current president-elect of the United States, has a history of speech and actions that have been viewed by scholars and the public as racist or sympathetic to White supremacy. Journalists, friends, family, and former employees have accused him of fueling racism in the United States. Trump has repeatedly denied accusations of racism. Conservative commentators point to the time he stated "whether you are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots" as an example of him not being a racist.

Justine Hardy is a British journalist, author, and integrated trauma therapist who has spent most of her adult life in India. She has been a journalist in South Asia, including Kashmir, where she established Healing Kashmir to help people overcome the trauma of the Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir that began in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lacy M. Johnson</span> American writer, professor and activist

Lacy M. Johnson is an American writer, professor and activist. She is the author of Trespasses: A Memoir, The Other Side: A Memoir and The Reckonings: Essays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal Marie Fleming</span> American sociologist and author

Crystal Marie Fleming is an American sociologist and author. She is full professor of sociology and Africana studies at Stony Brook University. Fleming is the author/editor of four books about race and white supremacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The 1619 Project</span> 2019 New York Times project

The 1619 Project is a long-form journalistic revisionist historiographical work that takes a critical view of traditionally revered figures and events in American history, including the Patriots in the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers, along with Abraham Lincoln and the Union during the Civil War. It was developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. It focused on subjects of slavery and the founding of the United States. The first publication from the project was in The New York Times Magazine of August 2019. The project developed an educational curriculum, supported by the Pulitzer Center, later accompanied by a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast.

<i>Too Much and Never Enough</i> 2020 biography of Donald J. Trump by Mary L. Trump

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man is a tell-all book written by American psychologist Mary L. Trump about her uncle, former U.S. President and current President Elect Donald Trump, and his family. It was published by Simon & Schuster on July 14, 2020. The book provides an insider view of Trump family dynamics and reveals details about financial dealings, including the author's work as the anonymous source who revealed her uncle's suspected tax fraud. The Trump family launched a lawsuit in an attempt to stop its publication but was unsuccessful in delaying the release of the book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary L. Trump</span> American psychologist and writer (born 1965)

Mary Lea Trump is an American psychologist and writer. A niece of US president-elect Donald Trump, she has been critical of him. Her 2020 book about him and the family, Too Much and Never Enough, sold nearly one million copies on the day of its release. Two further books followed, The Reckoning (2021) and Who Could Ever Love You (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Trump Jr.</span> Brother of Donald Trump (1938–1981)

Frederick Crist Trump Jr. was an American airplane pilot and maintenance worker. The eldest son of real-estate businessman Fred Trump Sr., he fell out of his father's favor when he chose to become an airline pilot, leading to his younger brother Donald inheriting the family business.

Joy Angela DeGruy is an American author, academic, and researcher, who previously served as assistant professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work. She is currently president and CEO of DeGruy Publications, Inc and Executive Director of the non-profit Be The Healing, Inc. She is mostly known for her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, originally published by UpTone Press in 2005 and revised and republished in 2017 by Joy DeGruy Publications, Inc. DeGruy and her research projects have featured in news and activist coverage of contemporary African-American social issues, in addition to public lectures and workshops on U.S. college campuses that include: Morehouse School of Medicine, Fisk University, Spelman College, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Smith College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. DeGruy has spoken at the United Nations, UNESCO, C-SPAN, Oxford University, Association of Black Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, the World Bank, The Essence Festival, and featured in Essence Magazine, and films that include "Cracking the Codes," a film by Shakti Butler, "InVisible Portraits" by Oge Egbuonu on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), among others. Dr. Degruy has also received a 2021 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to further her healing work.

<i>Minor Feelings</i> 2020 autobiographical book by Cathy Park Hong

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning is a 2020 autobiographical book of essays written by the Korean American author Cathy Park Hong. It was published by Penguin Random House in the United States and Profile Books in the United Kingdom and is composed of seven essays about growing up as an Asian-American in a Western capitalist society, more specifically in the United States of America. This book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography in 2020.

Saira Sameera Rao is an American political activist, author, publisher, and former Wall Street lawyer and television producer. She is the co-founder of Race2Dinner, In This Together Media, and Haven, and came to greater prominence in 2018 when she ran for Congress, losing out to incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the primary.

<i>Babel, or the Necessity of Violence</i> 2022 novel by R. F. Kuang

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution is a 2022 novel of speculative fiction by R. F. Kuang and set in 1830s England. Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them.

References

Footnotes

  1. In particular, Trump cites continued anti-black racism following the abolition of slavery, including the failures of Reconstruction and the implementation of Jim Crow laws, with Democrats largely responsible.
  2. Donald Trump won the Republican Party's presidential nomination for a third consecutive election and then went on to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win a non-consecutive second term.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal St. Martin's Publishing Group
  2. 1 2 VanDenburgh, Barbara (August 17, 2021). "Mary Trump's 'Reckoning': The PTSD survivor has some advice for a traumatized nation". USA Today . Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  3. Trump, Mary L. (2021). The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal. New York: St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN   978-1-250-27846-3.
  4. Ensor, Josie (March 17, 2021). "Mary Trump: why uncle Donald won't run again in 2024" . The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved September 4, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Klein, Joe (August 20, 2021). "Mary Trump takes on America's evils, beyond her famous uncle". The Washington Post .
  6. 1 2 Green, Lloyd (August 15, 2021). "The Reckoning by Mary L Trump review – how to heal America's trauma". The Guardian .
  7. "Review of The Reckoning". Kirkus Reviews . September 3, 2021.