
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Is mistrust a defining feature and flaw in American democracy? Or is it a manifestation of basic opposition against long-term democratic and aspirational concepts such as "all men are created equally"? In this thought provoking conversation author and historian Richard Kreitner joins Andrew Keen to explore the deep mistrust in U.S. political life. Drawing on themes from his book Break it up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. Kreitner traces the fractured origins of the American project, argues that national cohesion may be neither possible nor desirable at the continental scale, and makes the provocative case, that mistrust - even secessionist thinking - can sometimes be a rational response to genuine democratic failures. A timely conversation that challenges prevailing narratives about unity and the Constitution in an age of polarization and rising political anxiety.
By Bertelsmann Foundation4.9
1818 ratings
Is mistrust a defining feature and flaw in American democracy? Or is it a manifestation of basic opposition against long-term democratic and aspirational concepts such as "all men are created equally"? In this thought provoking conversation author and historian Richard Kreitner joins Andrew Keen to explore the deep mistrust in U.S. political life. Drawing on themes from his book Break it up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. Kreitner traces the fractured origins of the American project, argues that national cohesion may be neither possible nor desirable at the continental scale, and makes the provocative case, that mistrust - even secessionist thinking - can sometimes be a rational response to genuine democratic failures. A timely conversation that challenges prevailing narratives about unity and the Constitution in an age of polarization and rising political anxiety.

32,232 Listeners

47 Listeners

11 Listeners

87,996 Listeners

113,434 Listeners

16 Listeners

12,737 Listeners

6,115 Listeners

51,108 Listeners

16,507 Listeners

9,280 Listeners

2,607 Listeners

3,906 Listeners

3,536 Listeners

851 Listeners