Scan barcode
A review by larry1138
The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal by Mary L. Trump
3.0
Mary Trump certainly is a talented writer and perhaps her status as a member of a rather notorious family would be a good way to encourage those curious enough about her to listen to what she says. However, for this particular book, it almost feels like I was taught a history lesson about the horrible treatment of African Americans and told to acknowledge this history, but not from an expert in African American history, and not even from an actual African American who has lived through any such traumatic experiences (though such violence and oppression affects everyone in the nation).
As with her other volume on the trauma of the Trump family, I was expecting more of a scientific psychological analysis of what racism, violence, and terrorism can do and has done to the national psyche. In particular I wanted to know her solution to healing the nation's trauma, as the subtitle suggests. I was somewhat incorrect in my assumption of her book for the second time in a row. Instead what I received was an interesting if typically horrifying history of the oppression African Americans suffered at the hands of white supremacists in the United States. The solution: learn the history, acknowledge your part in it, and act.
Mary Trump has demonstrated she is a talented researcher, as much of the history she uncovers is deeply reviewed. The reader could almost treat this book as a history book, which of course is a very important part of the healing process. Many of those who are comfortable with their lot in life in the United States are completely unaware of the true horrors that white nationalist terrorism had inflicted upon the black populations of the country before the Civil Rights Era. Very few in America knew about the absolute destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma before an episode of HBO's Watchman series depicted it in television form in 2019. Juneteenth, the celebration of the day that slavery came to an end, didn't become a national holiday until 2021. So it is important that such momentous atrocities and events can finally take their spot in the wider culture.
But this is only a first step. Mary Trump subscribes very little call to action as far as I remember. Learning history, acknowledging bias, and taking small steps is improvement for sure, but this book is no guide to actually healing the nation. Perhaps that is because there is no healing such a polarized body politic. Perhaps it is because Mary Trump is only a psychologist, and not a sociologist/historian/politician with all the answers. This is partly why I would have liked the book to focus on the psychological damage that such oppression delivers not only to the oppressed but to the oppressors and onlookers. I am curious as to whether there is a cure for it, a way to break such toxic cycles from generation to generation. We're already seeing it in Millennials and Gen Z who, as the two most diverse generations in American history, are breaking down racial barriers in nearly all walks of life. But it would have been interesting to have a psychological analysis of why and how this phenomenon is occurring. Instead, I got a history lesson. A good one and an important one for sure, but nothing practical to really follow up on it.
A recommend for me because it is a good history lesson, but I can't help but feel you can get your black history education from other authors, particularly POC, as well as actual historians who specialize in African American history.
As with her other volume on the trauma of the Trump family, I was expecting more of a scientific psychological analysis of what racism, violence, and terrorism can do and has done to the national psyche. In particular I wanted to know her solution to healing the nation's trauma, as the subtitle suggests. I was somewhat incorrect in my assumption of her book for the second time in a row. Instead what I received was an interesting if typically horrifying history of the oppression African Americans suffered at the hands of white supremacists in the United States. The solution: learn the history, acknowledge your part in it, and act.
Mary Trump has demonstrated she is a talented researcher, as much of the history she uncovers is deeply reviewed. The reader could almost treat this book as a history book, which of course is a very important part of the healing process. Many of those who are comfortable with their lot in life in the United States are completely unaware of the true horrors that white nationalist terrorism had inflicted upon the black populations of the country before the Civil Rights Era. Very few in America knew about the absolute destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma before an episode of HBO's Watchman series depicted it in television form in 2019. Juneteenth, the celebration of the day that slavery came to an end, didn't become a national holiday until 2021. So it is important that such momentous atrocities and events can finally take their spot in the wider culture.
But this is only a first step. Mary Trump subscribes very little call to action as far as I remember. Learning history, acknowledging bias, and taking small steps is improvement for sure, but this book is no guide to actually healing the nation. Perhaps that is because there is no healing such a polarized body politic. Perhaps it is because Mary Trump is only a psychologist, and not a sociologist/historian/politician with all the answers. This is partly why I would have liked the book to focus on the psychological damage that such oppression delivers not only to the oppressed but to the oppressors and onlookers. I am curious as to whether there is a cure for it, a way to break such toxic cycles from generation to generation. We're already seeing it in Millennials and Gen Z who, as the two most diverse generations in American history, are breaking down racial barriers in nearly all walks of life. But it would have been interesting to have a psychological analysis of why and how this phenomenon is occurring. Instead, I got a history lesson. A good one and an important one for sure, but nothing practical to really follow up on it.
A recommend for me because it is a good history lesson, but I can't help but feel you can get your black history education from other authors, particularly POC, as well as actual historians who specialize in African American history.