This substack is dedicated to telling the story of America’s decades long march to Donald Trump. This procession precisely mirrors the story of my life and all those who were born in the numerical middle of the American Century.
We were the Children of Victory and somehow ended up with a ruined country. It is nothing less than a calamity. That’s why I call this substack History of a Calamity.
It’s a story you think you know but you don’t.
I left America for Britain 35 years ago and have been recording the history of my (our) calamity for BBC radio in documentaries and recorded essays since 1992.
As a journalist I have written and recorded the first rough draft of history for more than 30 years. Half of those years were spent working for NPR and its affiliates. As an author I have written two books of history. The first was on a contemporary subject: the Iraq War, which I covered as an unembedded reporter. The second was on the creation of modern Jewry starting in the French Revolution and ending a century and a half later with the Nazi seizure of power in April 1933.
This substack will over time be the equivalent of a third book. The history of America’s calamity, from 1950 to today. I hope you will subscribe, it costs nothing, and read this history from the ground up.
