Shakespeare in a Divided America

What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future

By: James Shapiro

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year • A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • A New York Times Notable Book

A timely exploration of what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about our divided land.

“In this sprightly and enthralling book . . . Shapiro amply demonstrates [that] for Americans the politics of Shakespeare are not confined to the public realm, but have enormous relevance in the sphere of private life.” —The Guardian (London)

The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.

From Abraham Lincoln’s and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth’s, competing Shakespeare obsessions to the 2017 controversy over the staging of Julius Caesar in Central Park, in which a Trump-like leader is assassinated, Shakespeare in a Divided America reveals how no writer has been more embraced, more weaponized, or has shed more light on the hot-button issues in our history.

Inspired

Read this while teaching a Shakespeare class at Antioch University Los Angeles and WOW, what an exquisite integration of American historical figures with the universality of the Bard. Excellent narration as well. High recommend!

And the point is?

Narration is well done.

I’m not sure I get the author’s point. Maybe other reviewers do.

Shakespeare Is Relevant to All times & Eras

This book was incredibly interesting— how Shakespeare is relevant in many different centuries and how the U.S. has responded to Shakespeare in different eras. Loved it! It was compelling .

Brilliant and scary

One of the best things I’ve heard on Audible. Illuminating how the current reign of terror by the stupid, racist and gullible is nothing new. It beautifully shows how art as seemingly enduring as Shakespeare is always dynamic, evolving and fragile, subject to the zeitgeist.

fascinating

excellent research and insightful connections to history and current events shakespeare continues relevant and his influence is pervasive!