Fortress America: How We Embraced Fear and Abandoned Democracy

I love “The Star-Spangled Banner”. I used to perform it before basketball games when I was a kid. I used to believe it was a great anthem for the country I lived in and loved. As I got older, however, I began to question the appropriateness of the phrase “land of the brave”. I couldn’t understand how so many people who professed to be brave lived their lives in fear and made their decisions because of it. Finally, there is a book that investigates this phenomenon.Fear has always been with us and always will be. However, in the historical tradition of America, overcoming fear to do the right thing (i.e. being brave) has been the foundation of our national myth. Whatever arguments there are to be made (and there are many) about the justice of the acts of our ancestors, it has to be admitted that it takes bravery to immigrate to an unknown land, to carve a living out of the wilderness, to fight against slavery having never owned a slave, to march off to Europe to fight Nazis. But, somewhere along the line, too many of us lost this virtue, isolated ourselves, and began to fear everything that wasn’t something we knew in our own little world.Ms. May traces the start of this turn inward to the beginning of the atomic age in the years after World War II. For the first time, it became clear that there existed a threat against which the government could not defend us. Americans were encouraged to protect themselves with fallout shelters and “duck and cover”. Living through the Cold War meant living with a constant underlying fear of complete destruction.And, once people started pulling at that thread, this fear needed more outlets than the existential threat of nuclear war. Other races, criminals, even the government itself became targets of our fear and distrust. This, combined with the mentality of self-defense, gave rise to the vigilante, the victimization of women and children, and the ridiculous levels of incarceration in this country. That doesn’t even take into account the bunker mentality of most Americans. As Pinker and others have shown, we live in the safest time in history but most of us cower in our homes behind cameras and security, refusing to let our children go out and play.I’m not sure what will help Americans shake off this fear and once again become truly the “land of the brave”. When we do, we will finally be able to make a real stab at overcoming the privilege, racism, anti-immigrant feeling, sexism, and other –isms that still hold us back from becoming that shining light to world. Trying to make sense of where that fear has come from is part of that process, and Ms. May’s excellent book is a good place to start.

The subtitle sets the tone; all about various fears (real and imagined) in post-WWII America. While a good deal of it seems valid,other parts are overdrawn. Starting with casting postwar suburbia as a nearly evil creation; the author paints the move to suburbsin the 1950's as a flight from fear in the cities, instead of a move to a new house and a fresh start after the hardships of the 1930'sand the war. Not to mention the obvious need for additional housing for newly forming families after 15 years of virtually no building.And speaking of that prior period, there was plenty of justifiable fear in the 30's and early 40's that isn't mentioned here,as if fear only popped up AFTER the war. There are many references to polling and survey results that point to feelings ofinsecurity, but polling numbers have to be taken with a grain salt: there is a long history of poll responses that show wide publicignorance of governmental and social facts-----as shown by the disconnect between public perception and declining crime rates.Less creditable are frequent references to popular magazine articles, which we all know are always grasping at the latest fadupon which to hang an article. And pandering politicians are little more than straws in the wind.Also omitted is any consideration of rising expectations. An example: in the early 20th century industrial workers did notexpect their job to be lifetime employment, but by the late 20th century they did expect lifetime employment and layoffsbecame threatening (understandably) and were to be feared.But to give credit where it is due, the chapters on overblown fear of crime and drugs, leading to overincararation are valid.Also pertinent is the discussion of overprotective parenting and the media hysteria over child endangerment.Less creditable is the space devoted to fringe fads, such as safe rooms.The reason for my calling this a long book is not its length, but its tone. It struck me as beating to death the same subject of fear,fear, and more fear, as if that is the only thing going on. A wider perspective would have been welcome.

Library book. No purchase. I believe in my public library. The 3 star reviewer probably loves Sean Hannity and Kelly Anne Conway? Great book. Great scribe. Easy read. That well written. She also questions SUVs, gated communities, private schools, etc. They are bad for this wonderful nation. Her book is based on facts. Lots of them. Little emotion, like that used by the far right GOP. Only sad part is. Few people read books today. Too busy on FoxConn supplied i this and i that. Short attention spans. Too easily swayed by crazy lil sound bytes and instagram, twitter nonsense. I hope she is right. That there is hope for this nation. Some days I wake up & I feel just the opposite. As a father and a retired teacher that is hard for me, too. Great book. Great insights. We can, as a nation, do better. We just need to filter out the haters and those who financially profit from the hateful, divided world we now have.

Great book covers a lot of areas and ties them together very effectively. Having grownup in the fifties this book explained many of the things I observed as a child and didn't question. Has a deep understanding of the times and shows many of the patterns that have repeated over the last fifty years. The book contains many great examples and a lot of good statistics. Highly recommended

The author describes how Americans were/are manipulated by our government.