Shakespeare in a Divided America

What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future

By: James Shapiro

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

One of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year • A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • A New York Times Notable Book

A timely exploration of what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about our divided land.

“In this sprightly and enthralling book . . . Shapiro amply demonstrates [that] for Americans the politics of Shakespeare are not confined to the public realm, but have enormous relevance in the sphere of private life.”—The Guardian (London)

The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.

From Abraham Lincoln’s and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth’s, competing Shakespeare obsessions to the 2017 controversy over the staging of Julius Caesar in Central Park, in which a Trump-like leader is assassinated, Shakespeare in a Divided America reveals how no writer has been more embraced, more weaponized, or has shed more light on the hot-button issues in our history.

©2020 James Shapiro (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"[A] terrific new book . . . If Jill Lepore and the late Tony Judt had collaborated, this taut, swift and insightful tract might have been the offspring . . . Among all the fine words currently being spilled examining the American mess, James Shapiro has outshone many of our best political pundits with this superb contribution to the discourse. He upped the wattage simply by bouncing his spotlight off a playwright 400 years dead who yet again turns out to be, somehow, us.”—David Ives, New York Times Book Review

“Shapiro treats us to one deep-dive vignette after another, most of which center on Shakespearean nuggets from America’s past that have vanished from view even among seasoned fans of this country’s neglected cultural curios.”—Bookforum

“Elegant, engaging, and enlightening, Shakespeare in a Divided America is a not-at-all guilty pleasure in this winter of our discontent.”—Psychology Today

Shakespeare Is Relevant to All times & Eras

This book was incredibly interesting— how Shakespeare is relevant in many different centuries and how the U.S. has responded to Shakespeare in different eras. Loved it! It was compelling .

Inspired

Read this while teaching a Shakespeare class at Antioch University Los Angeles and WOW, what an exquisite integration of American historical figures with the universality of the Bard. Excellent narration as well. High recommend!

And the point is?

Narration is well done.

I’m not sure I get the author’s point. Maybe other reviewers do.

Brilliant and scary

One of the best things I’ve heard on Audible. Illuminating how the current reign of terror by the stupid, racist and gullible is nothing new. It beautifully shows how art as seemingly enduring as Shakespeare is always dynamic, evolving and fragile, subject to the zeitgeist.

fascinating

excellent research and insightful connections to history and current events shakespeare continues relevant and his influence is pervasive!

Never realized how little I knew about Shakespeare

Great book. Too bad I read Shakespeare over 50 years ago. Remedying that now. More relevant than ever

Lots of American Shakespeare in search of a theme

First of all, the book provides a bounty of information about productions of Shakespeare in America, which in itself is quite interesting and entertaining. The problem is that the author seemingly felt as if he needed a gimmick to tie everything together, hence the "Divided America" conceit. This is only directly addressed in the introduction and final chapter, bookending a particular production of Julius Caesar, which presents the main character as a very familiar, modern political lightning rod. Even then, the theme of both sides of the American political spectrum adopting Shakespeare for its own agenda, is tenuous at best, as the author essentially acknowledges in the recitation of examples of right wing attempts to cancel the apparently "elitist" Shakespeare.

That being said, the rest of the book is chock full of the history of American Shakespeare productions, actors and reviews. The author tries to keep the theme as a touchstone, but beyond the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a great admirer of Shakespeare, and John Wilkes Booth was an actor who played Shakespearean characters on stage, it never gains much purchase. Similarly, the accounts of Shakespeare in Love were interesting Hollywood history, but really never grapple with anything beyond the mores of the times. Namely, an original Stoppard screenplay attempting to be sexually groundbreaking (though even by today's standards it sounds thoroughly overwrought in the attempt), and the cringe-worthiness of Harvey Weinstein in the midst of the sexual politics inside and out of the production. The only divided America really presented is the decent, open-minded side, and the racist, homophobic, misogynistic side. The latter, which we already kind of knew, never really had any time for Shakespeare to begin with.

I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars for this book, as it is not truly great, and it didn't really fulfill its promise. But, as mentioned above, on its on merit it is quite informative, and frankly, the political bent of the author is fairly aligned with my own, and judgments about opposing opinions are fairly, if not entirely objectively, presented. So, I opted for 4.

Excellent, Shocking

Full of surprises, this book taught me things I never knew about America’s love affair with Shakespeare, while also exposing more I still just can not understand about what’s happening in America today.

Blows you mind

One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. A must read. Great context for where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Outstanding Book

This is an incredible book, a must read. Professor Shapiro sheds light on our society through the lens of Shakespeare in a fascinating and approachable manner.

The reader is excellent. I’ve already recommended this book to many. It’s up for reprinting. The best way to read this is to listen to it because they publisher needs to print more copies!