Identity Crisis

The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America

By: John Sides, Michael Tesler, Lynn Vavreck

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Identity Crisis takes listeners from the bruising primaries to an election night whose outcome defied the predictions of the pollsters and pundits. The book shows how fundamental characteristics of the nation and its politics - the state of the economy, the Obama presidency, and the demographics of the political parties - combined with the candidates' personalities and rhetoric to produce one of the most unexpected presidencies in history. Early on, the fundamental characteristics predicted an extremely close election. And even though Trump's many controversies helped Clinton maintain a comfortable lead for most of the campaign, the prediction of a close election became reality when Americans cast their votes.

Identity Crisis reveals how Trump's victory was foreshadowed by changes in the Democratic and Republican coalitions that were driven by people's racial and ethnic identities. The campaign then reinforced and exacerbated those cleavages as it focused on issues related to race, immigration, and religion. The result was an epic battle not just for the White House but about what America is and should be.

©2018 Princeton University Press (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Great book, robot performance

Amazing book for politics nerds who want a good entertaining overview of what happened in 2016. Reader is a bit robotic though.

Fascinating Look at American attitudes

This book is for everyone who wants to know what happened in the 2016 election.

Great review of 2016

A fantastic overview of how the national elections of 2016 unfolded — but delivered as if it was read by a monotone, male Amazon Alexa. The droll delivery really detracted from my experience with the audio, relative to other titles.

Excellent required reading for school

Totally engaging material with stats and facts. I was "there" while it all happened and this book took a step back to give perspective without emotion. To see the stats behind all of the surveys after the outcome was really insightful.

Repetitive, tedious and not much new

Rehash of the 2016 election was probably fine if incredibly tedious for anyone who's been alive for the last 3 years. Does a good job dispelling a few election narratives that are already pretty tired but actual analysis of identity was pretty facile. There are countless better books released in the last few years regarding identity in the US and it's not worth the slog for a few not particularly original crumbs.