The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War, and Our Call To Greatness

FEATURING BETSY HARTMANN – The election of Donald Trump has provoked many declarations of apocalypse among progressives who see his unhinged, extremist right wing and Nazi-sympathizing ideology as an existential threat to our democracy. During Barack Obama’s presidency many on the fringes of the right wing had similar reactions.

Historian, educator, and author Betsy Hartmann has written a new book that explores the peculiarly American disposition for apocalyptic thinking. That fatalism that is dominant in US culture is firmly rooted in the origin and history of the nation going back to the Puritans of New England.

Betsy Hartmann, historian, educator, women’s rights advocate, author of the feminist classic, “Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control.” She is also a professor emerita of Development Studies and Senior Policy Analyst of the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. Her newest book is called The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War, and Our Call To Greatness.