Divided We Fall: Gambling with History in the Nineties [Paperback]

Haynes Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1995

"One of the most refreshing and accessible investigations of modern American life to come along in years." So says the San Francisco Chronicle of Haynes Johnson's clear-sighted but compassionate Divided We Fall, an eloquent warning that also uncovers myriad reasons for hope.

Over the course of two years, the Washington-based Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist crisscrossed the United States, talking to bankers, gang leaders, schoolteachers, businessmen, farmers—even President Bill Clinton—about the current state of America. The result, a powerful portrait of Americans at a pivotal point in their history, raises tough questions that continue to resonate.

Nationwide, Americans faced the legacy of the Reagan Eighties (disappearing jobs, soaring crime, racial polarization) with immense apprehension and a pervasive skepticism that colored their attitudes about politicians and the political system itself. At the same time, people in all walks of life were eager to take on the challenges of the Nineties. "I do not feel that I have been writing the obituary of the American Dream," writes Johnson in the final chapter of Divided We Fall; "I believe I have been writing about an interlude in the reclaiming of that Dream."

Indeed, with this brilliant document, Johnson urges and inspires us to join together, face the challenge of change, and take the brave gamble to reclaim the American Dream.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Johnson, whose Sleepwalking Through History dealt with America's moral decline in the Reagan era, spent more than a year crisscrossing the country, interviewing people from all walks of life to gauge the current American temperament. Everywhere he went he encountered rising cynicism, alienation from politics and institutions, fear over the economic future, concern with violent crime, volatile ethnic and racial tensions. This sobering report warns that with massive cutbacks in funding for schools, hospitals and social welfare programs, more and more people are falling through a "safety net" rent with gaping holes. Johnson's odyssey culminates in an interview with President Clinton which reads like a canned speech. Calling Clinton's proposed health care plan "the boldest, most visionary domestic initiative since the 1930's," Johnson concludes that Clinton's greatest challenge will be to convince Americans that his programs are worth additional cost and sacrifice. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, PBS commentator, and author of the best-selling Sleepwalking Through History ( LJ 2/1/91), follows up with this vision of the problems facing America in the post-Reagan years. Johnson reports from across the country about the concerns of grass-roots Americans and their attitudes about such issues as crime, education, and our economic future. Among the more disturbing trends cited are a tendency toward even more racial and cultural disunity and an obsession with short-term results at the expense of long-range planning. Although his travels took him to only a few select locales, Johnson found some eloquent subjects to interview, including President Clinton. This stark portrayal of the nation makes for a disturbing book but one that should be owned by every library. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/93.
- Gary Williams, Southeastern Ohio Regional Lib., Caldwell
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393313069
• ISBN-13: 978-0393313062
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,659,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, Penetrating Look At Contemporary America, April 24, 2002

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Divided We Fall: Gambling With History in the Nineties (Hardcover)

One of the best of the tribe of journalists who has successfully made the transition to writing full-time as a contemporary historian is former television correspondent Haynes Johnson, who has penned a wonderful series of books on American politics and social issues like "Sleepwalking Through History", a savvy and fascinating best-selling study of the Reagan's presidency and its aftermath. In this book, "Divided We Fall; Gambling With History In The Nineties", Johnson continues his exploration of the social, economic and politics realities of the times in a work that largely acts as a snapshot of the country and the polity at a particular moment in time, i.e., in the early 1990s, just after Bill Clinton ascended to the Presidency.

One of the things making this book special is the author's ability to draw those that he interviews out of themselves, and as a result he mines some fascinating data from the wide range of people he contacted while making a kind of sentimental journey across America. He found that people quite consistently voiced concerns and reservations about the same kinds of issues; employment, race, education, public schools, and also about traditional values and what their place in contemporary America should be. At the same time, Johnson counterposes against this series of vignettes and interviews details of the inner workings of the early Clinton presidency in all its hoary (or perhaps gory) complications. Faced with unpleasant choices about where we are, where we want to go, and how to get there, this point/counterpoint perspective has some interesting points to make about the state of the country and the culture.

Thus, this is a book that paints an indelible and unforgettable portrait of today's modern America, a country characterized by the common people feeling estranged and disconnected from the government and from what it seems to be about based on what the people seem to hear about it every day. This results in a kind of free-floating anxiety and disappointment about our seeming inability to make the necessary changes needed to face a turbulent and complicated future. As always, however, Johnson finds reasons for hope and optimism, and some of the individual narratives provide ample proof that idealism isn't dead, that there are people who passionately care about their country and their values, and who are actively involved in trying to make this a better country and a better world.

In summary, this is a worthwhile book that squarely faces those problems and issues central to our growth and vibrancy, and which also explores the contemporary scene with uncommon verve and understanding. Johnson is an uncommonly good writer, just as he was always such a terrifically uncommon old-school journalist. I suspect he is also a quite substantial human being! I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

11 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sleepwalking Through America, October 10, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divided We Fall: Gambling with History in the Nineties (Paperback)

Haynes Johnson begins his narrative analysis at the point where he finished in his mediocre political hatchet job on Ronald Reagan, "Sleepwalking Through History". For Haynes Johnson, Ronald Reagan was the reincarnation of Herbert Hoover, and the America that survived Reagan existed in one large Hooverville (Johnson has never adequately explained away the 13.5% inflation rate, 21% interest rate, the double digit unemployment, and gutted military system that Reagan was left by his noble predecessor). In the 90s Johnson finds average citizens struggling to overcome the legacy of the demon idiot King. He meets educated scholars performing manual labor (the horror!), distressed farmers, bankrupt businessmen, and a collection of people with "concerns" about crime, deficit spending, and the apparent decline in America's international prestige. Johnson could have spared himself the time and expense of his travels and just tuned into an endless stream of current political talk shows on CNN. Strangely enough, Johnson managed to cross America without ever encountering entrepreneurs, well paid workers, or anyone without an axe to grind. Johnson uses his narrative as an excuse to engage in the "gee, isn't Sweden wonderful" crystal ball gazing, waxing poetic about America's lack of commitment to long-term planning (read: National Industrial Policy, or other socialist variants of the aborted Clinton Health Care Plan described by Johnson in an earlier book). Anyone familiar with the works of Hayek knows where he's going with that arguement. A careful examination of the European economic situation (unemployment in the multiples of the American figures, crippling taxes, lack of housing, blatant legalized racism, economic stagnation) would reveal the vacuousness of Johnson's arguements.