Dear Members of Ray’s Unofficial Book Club,

Greetings from New York. I know you want an analysis of how the Trump world looks up close. Let me just say that in a recent NYT poll, 59% of registered voters described Trump’s second term as ‘scary.‘ Count me in that camp.  In the same poll, 66% said  ‘chaotic.‘ That fits, too. There is ‘breaking news’ almost hourly it seems — tariffs are on, now they’re off; Musk is dismantling Washington, no, he’s left town; the court has ruled, a judge is arrested; the gates at Columbia University are locked; Harvard fights back. “Unbelievable,” “Unprecedented,” “Uncharted waters” — have lost all meaning.

If you’re looking for me to tell you where it’s going to end — will Trump defy the courts; when will the FBI raid journalist’s homes; who will win between Harvard and the government; eventually, will citizens be picked up by agents in black masks and sent to El Salvador; will law firms find their spine; will Trump trade Taiwan for Greenland and Panama — sorry, I can’t help you; I have no profound insights.

But if you want a compelling, historical narrative of another dark period in American history, one that provides a look at our own time, at the roots of MAGA and the right-wing in America today, and where we might be headed in the coming months, then I highly recommend Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America by Clay Risen.

The mid-1940s to the late 50s was an era of loyalty oaths and book bans; of ‘paranoid viciousness’ and conspiracy theories; of individuals afraid to speak out, of politicians riding the anti-communism hysteria (read about Richard Nixon, the pumpkin papers, Alger Hiss and Whitaker Chambers); of Hollywood blacklists of actors and writers (including a good personal friend of mine, Walter Bernstein, whose observations enrich Red Scare); of lives ruined on mere allegations that one was a ‘communist,’ a ‘pinko,’ a ‘commie symp’ (think Oppenheimer). In 1952, Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress — like today. Then, as now, the Democrats were divided between progressives and moderates (George Wallace, dumped by FDR as VP, ran as a Progressive; Truman won).

In the guise of a war against communism, the objective was a white, male, conservative, Christian nation. The Trump Administration casts the defunding of universities as a crack down on antisemitism. It is hard to take as anything but a ruse — Trump’s  background is filled with antisemitic remarks; then there is Musk’s Nazi salute.

Red Scare isn’t being published in Australia (no comment). Feeling as strongly as I do about the book, which I read in two days, Bookoccino will bring in some from the US. Price: A$59.99. Trust me, worth it.  “There may be no better diagnosis for our own Trump-era predicament, and revisiting the Red Scare reveals a great deal about how we ended up here,” the New York Times wrote. “… meaty and powerfully relevant…Risen tells his story with a punch and an economy that is at times almost Hemingwayesque.”

To purchase your copy, click here:

Better yet, come into Bookoccino, have a coffee, a lively conversation, browse.

If you live outside the Northern Beaches area and cannot ‘click + collect’, we will post you your copy for $10.

Note, we are only going to bring in a limited number, so order before Fri 2 May.

Albest (as foreign correspondents signed off in the telex days),

Ray