That's a wrap for The 45th in 2018. We greatly appreciate you reading us each week and hope you've benefited from the mix of US political news and our analysis every Wednesday.

No Images? Click here

Logo
The 45th

12 DECEMBER

2020Vision and the year in review

That's a wrap for The 45th in 2018. We greatly appreciate you reading us each week and hope you've benefited from our mix of US political news and analysis every Wednesday. 

Rather than our usual aggregate of top stories this week, the United States Studies Centre's experts have submitted their top picks for books, film, television series and podcasts that you can devour over the holiday season.

We also recommend you listen to our new podcast, 2020Vision. Its latest episode, available on iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, features Visiting Fellow Bruce Wolpe looking back on the past 12 months of big stories in US politics, foreign policy and the Russia investigation – and what they could mean for the 2020 US presidential election campaign.

Have a safe and relaxing break and we look forward to returning to your inboxes in January 2019.

 

USSC RECOMMENDS

The best reads, listens and binge-watches for the holiday season

Thomas Adams
Academic Coordinator & Lecturer, American Studies and History

  • Alison Lefkovitz, 'Strange Bedfellows: Marriage in the Age of Women's Liberation' (Book). Does more to explain the politics of the family as well as key sections of modern conservatism than any book yet written.  
     
  • Elizabeth Catte, 'What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia' (Book). A succinct evisceration of the anti-intellectual just-so narratives of the so-called white-working class and the odd resurgence of Victorian anthropological methods that scholars and journalists have adopted to study this group.  
     
  • Jonathan Marks, 'Why I Am Not a Scientist' (Book). A timely reread as key sectors of social and human science as well as American culture more broadly seem to once again be enthralled with a genetic and biological determinism that exhibits all the methodological flaws of so many disproven previous iterations.  

Madelyn Creedon
Alliance 21 Fellow

  • Oona A. Hathaway, Scott J. Shapiro, 'The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World' (Book). A bold and provocative history of the men who fought to outlaw war, it tells the story of the Peace Pact by placing it in the long history of international law from the 17th century through the present.

Charles Edel
Senior Fellow

  • Deep State Radio (Podcast). The funniest, most informative and insightful take on American politics, national security and international affairs.
     
  • David Ignatius, 'The Quantum Spy' (Book). This Washington Post columnist has a second life as a writer of spy novels. His latest takes as its premise the race between the Chinese and the Americans to develop the world's first quantum computer.
     
  • Tom Ricks, 'Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom' (Book). Ricks's dual biography is a powerful testament to Orwell and Churchill's contributions to shaping our language, politics and understanding of freedom. It's also a useful reminder that democracy is a fighting faith.

Gorana Grgic
Lecturer, Foreign Policy

  • Jill Lepore, 'These truths' (Book). This nearly 1000-page long volume traces the history of the United States from its very idea to the 2016 election and its aftermaths. Beautifully written and spotlights a lot of historical figures and events that aren’t particularly well-known.
     
  • Brian D. Taylor, 'Code of Putinism' (Book). What has been motivating Vladimir Putin for the past two decades? Brian Taylor provides one of the most comprehensive answers as he argues for a closer study of Putinism as a quasi-ideology associated with the Russian president and the particular historical context of post-Soviet Russia.
     
  • Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, (TV/Netflix) Each episode of the late Anthony Bourdain’s show is a journey where your guide is a man thoroughly consumed by wanderlust and the desire to discover new cultures and cuisines, unburdened by fear or prejudice.

Simon Jackman
CEO

  • John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck, 'Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America' (Book). A book that helps put the US experience in some historical perspective — with data and rigour. Racial identity has powerfully shaped US politics for decades. Careful analysis and reflection is needed to separate what is distinctive and hence possibly transient in Trump’s campaign and his win, versus longer terms constants and trends in American public opinion.
     
  • Election Law Blog (Website). The place to hang out to keep abreast of the many and varied state and federal court, and legislative battles around voting rights, election administration, redistricting, claims and counter-claims of voter fraud and intimidation.

    Stephen Kirchner
    Director, Trade & Investment Program

    • Douglas Irwin, 'Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy' (Book). The definitive and highly readable history of US trade policy, placing it in the context of US economic and political history more generally.
       
    • Harold James, 'The End of Globalization: Lessons from the Great Depression' (Book). Written by an award-winning historian, James shows the forces at work in the demise of an earlier era of globalisation, with clear parallels to today’s events.
       
    • Kevin Erdmann, 'Shut Out: How a Housing Shortage Caused the Great Recession and Crippled Our Economy' (Book). Erdmann radically reinterprets the 2008 financial crisis through a forensic examination of the economic data to show how the financial crisis was caused by restrictions on housing supply. Clear lessons for Australia’s dysfunctional housing market.

    Stephen Loosley
    Visiting Fellow

    • Chappaquiddick (Film). Featuring a superb performance by Australian actor Jason Clark as Ted Kennedy and a mesmerising performance by Bruce Dern as Joe Kennedy Snr, this film is both original and confronting. It depicts the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident in which Ted Kennedy drove his car into Poucha Pond – killing Mary Jo Kopechne – and the Kennedy family's response.
       
    • John Meacham, 'The Soul of America' (Book). The best book on American political culture published this year. 
       
    • Trump: An American Dream (Film, Netflix). A quite convincing documentary on the US president – mainly because it uses words taken from Trump’s own mouth.

    Jared Mondschein
    Senior Fellow & Senior Advisor

    • Trade Talks By the Peterson Institute for International Economics (Podcast). Soumaya Keynes (The Economist) and Chad P. Bown (Peterson Institute) co-host a weekly podcast on developments in international trade and policy. From trade wars to trade deals, it covers the week's trade news with insights and economic analysis from two of the world's top trade geeks.
       
    • Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (TV/Netflix). Minhaj brings an incisive and nuanced perspective to global news, politics and culture in his comedy series.

    Aaron Nyerges
    Lecturer, American Studies

    • OJ Simpson: Made in America (TV). This six-part documentary is incredibly addictive. It's a complex portrait of Los Angeles that explores the consequence of racism, sexism, class and celebrity in America.
       
    • The Defiant Ones (Film). This documentary follows the career of record producer Jimmy Lovine and his collaboration with Dr. Dre. Above all it's a portrait of ambition, commitment and business success in the United States. 
       
    • Sylvia Scarlett (Film). For people interested in exploring George Cukor's oeuvre in light of the A Star is Born remake, his film of 1935 is an interesting exploration of gender discrimination that resonates with the #metoo movement. Katherine Hepburn plus transvestism equals a somewhat predictable but sometimes revelatory portrait of gendered social relations.

    Brendon O'Connor 
    Associate Professor in American Politics

    • Kurt Andersen, 'Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire – A 500-Year History' (Book). A book that helped me think about the world of President Trump. Anderson suggests fantasy is deeply embedded in Americans' DNA.
       
    • Whitney Phillips, 'This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things' (Book). Phillips writes about the relationship between internet trolling and sensationalist corporate media—explaining that for trolls, exploitation is a leisure activity; for media, it's a business strategy.
       
    • Podcasts I keep coming back to: The Daily, The Ezra Klein Show, Why Is This Happening with Chris Hays, Crazy/Genius.

    Don Scott-Kemmis
    Research Fellow, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program

    • Ian W. McLean, 'Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth' (Book). Historian Ian McLean traces Australia’s economic development, arguing that the institutional inheritance, and even more importantly pragmatic institutional innovation, have been more important than the ‘luck’ of a generous and diverse resource endowment. 
       
    • Mariana Mazzucato, 'The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths' (Book). Almost all of the major technologies that have driven the IT and Biotech revolutions were nurtured through public funding (particularly in the United States). Mazzucato asks: if government was this vital, why has a different history become the dominant narrative? 
       
    • Fred L. Block, and Matthew R. Keller, eds. 'State of Innovation: The US Government’s Role in Technology Development' (Book). Block, Keller and several co-authors provide detailed analysis of the role of a range of US government programs and organisations in developing the capabilities and technologies that have underpinned US innovation.

    David Smith
    Senior Lecturer, American Politics & Foreign Policy

    • Lilliana Mason, 'Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity' (Book). Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties in the United States.
       
    • ​Spencer Piston, 'Class Attitudes in America: Sympathy for the Poor, Resentment of the Rich, and Political Implications' (Book). This book explains a long-standing puzzle in American politics: why so many Americans support downwardly redistributive social welfare programs, when such support seems to fly in the face of standard conceptions of the American public as anti-government, individualistic and racially prejudiced.
       
    • Melani McAlister, 'The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals' (Book). McAlister offers a sweeping narrative of the last 50 years of evangelical history, weaving a fascinating tale that upends much of what we know — or think we know — about American evangelicals.

    Matilda Steward
    Research Associate, Foreign Policy & Defence

    • Serial Season 3 (Podcast). Serial podcast’s third season documents ‘a year inside a typical American courthouse’. By following a broad cross-section of cases and introducing the various personalities that operate within Cleveland’s judicial ecosystem, each episode thoughtfully shines a light on inequalities that exist within the US criminal justice system more broadly.

    Rodney Taveira
    Lecturer, American Studies

    • Fighting in the Age of Loneliness (Web Series). A five-part web series that interrogates the political economy of the global sports phenomenon of mixed martial arts within the recent history of the United States. 
       
    • Rachel Kushner, 'The Mars Room' (Book). Kushner’s follow-up to The Flamethrowers is set in a northern Californian women’s prison and pre-tech money San Francisco. As funny as Dostoyevsky, Kushner characterises the bare life of the American underclass and its all-too potential path into the criminal justice system.   
       
    • The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Film, Netflix). The Coen Brothers return to their revision of the Western in a film that revels in the beauty of the land, the cruel humour of the quick and the dead, and the intimacy of strangers thrown together by chance and necessity.

    Ashley Townshend
    Director, Foreign Policy & Defence Program

    • Mark Perry, 'Pentagon's Wars' (Book). A dramatic account of the deep and divisive debates between America's civilian leaders and its military officers. Perry investigates these internal wars and sheds new light on the US military.
       

    • Brendan Taylor, 'The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War' (Book). A highly engaging read about four of Asia’s most worrying potential crises in which US-China relations loom large — and Australian policy responses must be developed.
       

    • Net Assessment (Podcast). A thoughtful and balanced analysis of contemporary debates in American strategic policy that’s well worth your time.

    Elsina Wainwright
    Non-Resident Senior Fellow

    • Jon Meacham, 'Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush' (Book). The compelling biography of the 41st president by historian and George H. W. Bush eulogist Jon Meacham.
       
    • The Axe Files (Podcast). Fascinating podcast series of in-depth interviews with American political figures by political analyst and President Obama's former senior advisor David Axelrod.
       
    • Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War (TV). Searing documentary series chronicling the Vietnam War, told through the stories of those caught up in it.

    Bruce Wolpe
    Visiting Fellow

    • Norm Ornstein, EJ Dionne and Thomas Mann, 'One Nation After Trump' (Book). The best book this year on America's political malaise and what can be done.
       
    • The 11th Hour with Brian Williams (TV/MSNBC). While MSNBC is not carried by cable in Australia, you can watch the best hour of hard political analysis of the day's events in Washington on YouTube. Each day's program (Monday-Friday in the United States) is posted late afternoon in Australia. Fantastic discussions on what is going on with Trump, and how his term is playing out.
       
    • Washington Week in Review (TV/PBS). If you have a Sunday morning craving for Friday night reflection in DC on the week just passed, there is this venerable and reliable show on PBS. No geoblock. 
     

    Manage your email preferences  |  Forward this email to a friend

    United States Studies Centre
    Institute Building H03
    University of Sydney NSW 2006

    ​www.ussc.edu.au  |  us-studies@sydney.edu.au

    Twitter
    Facebook
    The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney is a university-based research centre, dedicated to the rigorous analysis of American foreign policy, economics, politics and culture. The Centre is a national resource, that builds Australia’s awareness of the dynamics shaping America — and critically — their implications for Australia.
    Unsubscribe