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Journalist Beth Macy is the author of four books about the hollowing out of the American dream, including the 2018 best seller Dopesick . Her new book, Paper Girl , blends memoir and reportage to chart the rise of political despair in her Ohio hometown.

‘Achieving Our Country’ by Richard Rorty (1998)

Rorty, a philosopher, predicted the ascent of a strongman like Trump and all the discrimination, selfish behavior, and weakening of societal institutions that followed. But he didn’t spare his fellow liberals, asking hard questions of the Left, which stood by as unions were destroyed, jobs sent away, and regulations squelched. Buy it here .

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