Hiding in Plain Sight
The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America
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4.6 • 129 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Instant New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
Indie Bound Bestseller
Authors Round the South Bestseller
Midwest Indie Bestseller
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American demagogue possible.
The story of Donald Trump’s rise to power is the story of a buried American history – buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt.
Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy – how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.
In Kendzior’s signature and celebrated style, she expertly outlines Trump’s meteoric rise from the 1980s until today, interlinking key moments of his life with the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of our civil liberties by foreign powers. Kendzior also offers a never-before-seen look at her lifelong tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – living in New York through 9/11 and in St. Louis during the Ferguson uprising, and researching media and authoritarianism when Trump emerged using the same tactics as the post-Soviet dictatorships she had long studied.
It is a terrible feeling to sense a threat coming, but it is worse when we let apathy, doubt, and fear prevent us from preparing ourselves. Hiding in Plain Sight confronts the injustice we have too long ignored because the truth is the only way forward.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Kendzior (The View from Flyover Country) charts nearly five decades of impropriety, shady business practices, and alleged crimes perpetuated by Donald Trump in this impeccably researched chronicle. Arguing that Trump is a "media-savvy con man" bent on dictatorship, Kendzior explores his prot g relationship with disgraced attorney Roy Cohn and his early dealings with the Soviet Union. She tracks Trump's friendship with convicted underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, noting that in 2016 one of Epstein's victims accused Trump of rape (her lawsuit has since been dropped), and contends that Trump Tower has "effectively functioned as a dorm for the Russian mafia" since Soviet Army veteran and mob figure David Bogatin attempted to launder $6 million by buying five luxury condos in the building in 1984. Kendzior weaves autobiographical sketches and broad overviews of American culture and geopolitical events into her narrative; in many cases, these digressions create a more comprehensive picture, while others, including an extended thread on tabloid "voyeurism," feel like tangents. Political junkies will be familiar with much of Kendzior's claims, but she offers a few surprises and many valuable insights into the president's psychological motivations and methods of manipulation. This comprehensive, page-turning account presents a stark and uncompromising indictment of the Trump presidency as the culmination of a "decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy."
Customer Reviews
See AllThe singularly most important book in the last 15 years.
If you are confused about the current state of affairs in American politics- you’re not alone. This book makes it stunningly easy to digest decades of RELEVANT information. This book may stun you, but the unvarnished truth is better than a comforting (or discomforting) lie. The way out of this darkness is enlightenment. Can’t recommend this enough!
Illuminating View of The Rot in American Politics
While this book takes an historical look at the mechanisms, foreign and domestic, that brought Trump to power in 2016, it’s also completely relevant—and prescient—about Trump’s return in 2024. This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand how autocracy could come to America.
You betta read it:
This is one of the most exceptional books on the subject matter. Kenzior asks the questions that the New York Times and others must be afraid to ask. She brings the receipts and the clarity. 100 years from now, if we survive, folks will say that she tried to warn us and those with power chose to ignore clear evidence that brought about our peril as a nation. At a time when the GOP is desperately trying to erase and alter the history that we are eye witnesses to, you will want to keep the book. We have to have something to refute the lies. She is brilliant and I cannot help but wonder if the world would have taken this book and it’s subject matter more seriously if Kenzior had been a male journalist.