American Psychosis

A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy

By: David Corn

Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen

#1 New York Times bestselling author and investigative reporter David Corn tells the wild and harrowing story of the Republican Party’s decades-long relationship with far-right extremism, bigotry, and paranoia.​

A fast-paced, rollicking, behind-the-scenes account of how the GOP since the 1950s has encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia to gain power, American Psychosis offers listeners a brisk, can-you-believe-it journey through the netherworld of far-right irrationality and the Republican Party’s interactions with the darkest forces in America. In a compelling and thoroughly-researched narrative, Corn reveals the hidden history of how the Party of Lincoln forged alliances with extremists, kooks, racists, and conspiracy-mongers and fostered fear, anger, and resentment to win elections—and how this led to Donald Trump’s triumph and the transformation of the GOP into a Trump personality cult that foments and bolsters the crazy and dangerous excesses of the right.

The Trump-incited insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was no aberration. American Psychosisshows it was a continuation of the long and deep-rooted Republican practice of boosting and weaponizing the rage and derangement of the right.

The gripping tale in American Psychosis covers the last seven decades. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society to segregationists to the New Right to the religious right to Rush Limbaugh to Newt Gingrich to the militia movement to Fox News to Sarah Palin to the Tea Party to Trumpism, the Republican Party has deliberately nurtured and exploited rightwing fear and loathing fueled by paranoia, grievance, and tribalism. This powerful and important account explains how one political party has harnessed the worst elements in politics to poison the nation’s discourse and threaten American democracy.

"[Corn is] a great journalist. I love the way he thinks. I love the way he writes. I'm so glad he's done a super-readable, modern history of the right...We just need smart, digestible history about this stuff right now...[American Psychosis] is perfectly timed...Relevant history for where we are right now." —Rachel Maddow, host, The Rachel Maddow Show

"With American Psychosis, David Corn 'did the full homework to take us all the way back to where it really begins.’" —Lawrence O'Donnell, host, The Last Word

©2022 David Corn (P)2022 Twelve

Critic reviews

"We all know that the hatred, bigotry, conspiracism, paranoia, and rage inside the GOP didn’t start with Donald Trump. But in AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS, an important and convincing account, David Corn shows that such poison has been in the marrow of the Republican Party for more than 70 years."—Jonathan Alter, author of The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

“Whether you think the GOP's descent into depravity started with Barry Goldwater or Richard Nixon or Newt Gingrich, David Corn makes the powerful case that Donald Trump didn't come out of nowhere. Corn expertly traces the antecedents of Trump and Trumpism over the decades. This is a must read if you want to understand what brought us to Trump and why the GOP remains a threat to American democracy.”—Jennifer Rubin, columnist, the Washington Post

“David Corn's AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS is essential reading for anyone hoping to restore political sanity in America. He argues convincingly that the toxic brew of bigotry, conspiracy theories, and lies that define Trumpism started long before Trump. Corn writes that Trump was not an aberration. He was the apotheosis of the Republican Party's decades-long slide into the gutter. Corn weaves this investigative history together into a compelling narrative that is equal parts horrifying and entertaining. It's a tribute to Corn that with the publication of AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS he has managed to make brilliant sense of American senselessness.”—Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money, and Chief Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker Magazine

Fabulous research

Well written history of the compromises that led the Republican Party to their current state. A history of “the end justifies the means” rather than recognizing that the means are the ends.

It’s Worse Than You Imagine

David Korn has written a comprehensive history of the Republican Party since the mid 20th Century. Filled with names, anecdotes, and narratives often forgotten in the rush of events, Korn’s book reminds us that party over country is a long-established GOP tradition, from the America First Committee of the 1930’s through the Tea Party of the first decade of the new century and on to Trump’s lawlessness. It’s all here, in detail. Maybe not the definitive account of how a political party tossed aside 150 years of service to the nation, but definitely worth reading.

The Unraveling of America

Extremism is deeply inbeded in American politics and culture. The psychosis spreads into a fantasy reality.

Must read for anyone wanting context for todays political environment

I purchased this book because I wanted to get a historical view of what politics is like today so that I could explain it to my children. After listening to the whole thing over a week and a half I am more firmly committed to the view that mean people do mean things for their own personal gain. Group psychosis is a real thing. I have real concerns about the future of our democracy.

This is a history book. No fluff.

Prepare to be simultaneously vindicated/disgusted. Book reminds us that we saw what we saw.

A Must Read to Connect the Dots

A book tracing the flirtation of Republican politicians with the Kooks, until the Kooks took over the Party.

the old conservative playbook

Good history, but poorly read. "Rinse" Priebus... Paul "WAY-rich"... It doesn't seem like Cohen was familiar with the figures.

I don’t think proven facts are fiction

This is not BS spun into a factual narrative, this is a cohesive recounting of provable facts. Where there is room for opinion, the reader can decide to accept or reject it, but, unlike delusional Republican narratives about it’s political track record, this book sticks to historical facts backed by Congressional records, public political speeches and written material by the sources cited. All this in a storyline that is hard to put down.

The long timeline that was easily followed.

The narrative voice jumped around a bit at times when a different voice would step in for a paragraph or two. 

Interesting, but extremely one-sided

The analysis in the book was not entirely unreasonable, but was extremely one-sided, which made me question its accuracy and forthrightness.