"Twice before in its history, the United States has been faced with a crisis so severe it was forced to reinvent itself in order to survive: first, the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War, and the second, the Great Depression, which led to President Roosevelt's New Deal and the establishment of America as a social-democratic state. In a sequence of essays that excavate the past while laying bare the political upheaval of 2016, Ben Fountain argues that the United States may be facing a third existential crisis, one that will require a "burning" of the old order as America attempts to remake itself" -- From Amazon.com.

Includes index.

Prologue : The third reinvention -- Book of days : January -- Iowa 2016 : riding the roadkill express -- Book of days : February -- The phony in American politics -- Book of days : March -- American crossroads : Reagan, Trump, and the devil down south -- Book of days : April -- American exceptionalism and the great game : at play in the fields of the Lord -- Book of days : May -- Doing the chickenhawk with Trump : talking fast and loose in the time of endless war -- Book of days : June -- Cheerleaders of the star-spangled apocalypse : fear and loathing with the NRA in Louisville, Kentucky -- Book of days : July -- Cleveland fear factory -- Book of days : August -- Hillary doesn't live here anymore -- Book of days : September -- Two American dreams -- Book of days : October -- The long good deal -- Book of days : November -- Trump rising : King Donald saddles up with the wrecking crew -- Book of days : December -- A familiar spirit.