How America became the United States Divided

Overview

Don Watson loves America. He has been writing about it for years – its tumultuous past, its people, its landscape, its idiosyncrasies, its politics. Don’s 2008 book American Journeys – an account of travelling around the US – was awarded The Age Book of the Year and the Walkley Book Award. His 2016 Quarterly Essay on the rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement revealed a deep understanding of where America had come from – and where it might be heading.  

And just last October, on the eve of the 2024 presidential election, Don Watson produced another Quarterly Essay on the Trump phenomenon and wondered whether the Democrats might have a chance. Once again, his prescience and innate understanding of how American voters were thinking was sharp and compelling.  

  Who better to put together an illuminating history of the USA at this challenging moment? And what an important time for non-Americans to learn a bit about the so-called “leader of the free world”? As Don Watson writes: “Men like Donald Trump are embedded in US history, mythology and popular culture. Rank populists, hucksters, fakers, grifters, rent-seekers, blowhards, tycoons, kleptocrats, narcissists, psychopaths and delinquents – or, from the other point of view, rugged individualists, entrepreneurs, men of vision, men of destiny, instruments of God. No diorama of mainstream American life in any era could be without them.” 

  Help us celebrate the arrival of The Shortest History of the United States of America and join Don Watson in our special South Yarra Library event. Don will be “in conversation” with Sorrento Writers Festival Director Corrie Perkin. This is our final author event for 2025 – we hope you’ll join us. 

Summary

When: Tuesday, November 25

Where: Toorak/South Yarra Library  
340 Toorak Road, South Yarra

Time: 6-7pm

Cost: Tickets are $25