A review by librarytay
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future by James Shapiro

5.0

As with all of James Shapiro’s books, this one is phenomenal. If not the whole book, I highly recommend reading the introduction and the final chapter to get a better understanding of what is happening in the United States today (and what has led to events like the terrorist attack on the US Capitol last week). It clearly demonstrates how right-wing media intentionally obfuscates facts and creates a rhetoric all its own. It’s not a mistake that they’ve shortened anti-fascist to antifa (which many Trump supporters believe to stand for anti-First Amendment instead). Like Greenblatt’s Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, this is a timely read that shows the enduring nature of the bard’s plays.