The Undertow

Scenes from a Slow Civil War

By: Jeff Sharlet

Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet

An instant New York Times best seller.

One of America’s finest reporters and essayists explores the powerful currents beneath the roiled waters of a nation coming apart.

An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.

Across the country, men “of God” glorify materialism, a gluttony of the soul, while citing Scripture and preparing for civil war—a firestorm they long for as an absolution and exaltation. Lies, greed, and glorification of war boom through microphones at hipster megachurches that once upon a time might have preached peace and understanding. Political rallies are as aflame with need and giddy expectation as religious revivals. At a conference for incels, lonely single men come together to rage against women. On the far right, everything is heightened—love into adulation, fear into vengeance, anger into white-hot rage. Here, in the undertow, our 45th president, a vessel of conspiratorial fears and fantasies, continues to rise to sainthood, and the insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, killed on January 6 at the Capitol, is beatified as a martyr of White womanhood.

Framing this dangerous vision, Sharlet remembers and celebrates the courage of those who sing a different song of community and of an America long dreamt of and yet to be fully born, dedicated to justice and freedom for all.

Exploring a geography of grief and uncertainty in the midst of plague and rising fascism, The Undertow is a necessary reckoning with our precarious present that brings to light a decade of American failures as well as a vision for American possibility.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Jeff Sharlet (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Brave, Informed, Essential

A brave, informed, essential journey through America’s fractured psyche in the Trumpocene Era. Every good citizen should read this book.

Brilliant!

The author’s journalistic style is immersive and his writing is visceral. I truly felt that sense of the culture and nuance of the MAGA base. Through his travels and interactions with true believers, the author effectively showed the ‘condition’ afflicting our country. His writing and voice had me feeling the undertow.

Correction: hang loose, not shocker

It is hilarious that this over-read egg head would bring in so much rich context and make a simple mistake of repeatedly saying the "shocker" hand gesture when I believe he means the hang-loose gesture.

In defense of Ashli Babbet, the gesture with the thumb and pinky is hang-loose. The shocker is like a scouts salute with an added pinky. The latter being a life sexual joke popular with adolescent boys that W was once tricked into flashing without knowing it's significance.

Truth Hurts

A literary travelogue that weaves together tales of frightened, credulous Americans (all armed to the teeth) and the false prophets who manipulate them for profit or power. This has little to do with Trump—he’s an irritant, or perhaps another symptom. The Undertow is about how individual grief and fear become delusion and anger, and how quickly personal delusion and anger give way to mass psychosis in the Information Age.

Sharlet has a sharp-eye and dry delivery that (as has been noted previously) is very reminiscent of Joan Didion. The opening and closing chapters are barely related, but I was grateful for the buffer—what’s between is seriously fucking distressing.

Great opening and close

The opening chapter, focused on the life and activism of Harry Belafonte, is alone worth the price of admission.
The core story, following the ghost of Ashli Babbitt, is fascinating, but wanders and meanders at times. But even then, it’s insightful, especially for those of us who struggle to understand how folks can believe obvious conspiracy theories.

Beautiful work!

The content is wonderful, beautifully brought to life by the narrative performance. A true tale of our current state of affairs seen through historical eyes.

A must

In this moment read this. Take it in. Turn it over like a pebble in your mouth until you can name its contours. Timeless, urgent. Stride into this timeline with a large and open heart, do not abandon your trepidation for here you will find its soul, here too you will find hope.

Very well written nonfiction

About a horrifying prospect. I recommend this to anyone and everyone , especially readers of good prose and poetry. One of the most lyrical and disturbing nonfiction audiobooks I’ve heard.

Lyrical and honest

Jeff Sharlet’s appreciation for unflinching directness and the music of human self-determination permeates this account of what he found when he went to meet Americans who are preparing for civil war. Some seem eager, some wary. And what does civil war even mean to any particular person? As he finds repeadly, the definition depends on who you ask, how they see themselves and how they regard others. Lucky for us, Sharlet made it his business in this book to ask, to respectfully listen, to observe and report, in his reflective and lyrical prose, what people are saying. The people he asked are people who, rightly or wrongly, feel they are not listened to by eider society. You may have heard a lot of what they have to say before, but there is plenty of additional richness of perspective unearthed and pondered here. The shards are wrapped in Sharlet’s own love of music, the kind that fascism always wants to silence, and that makes this road trip with him worth your time.

An enthralling Travelogue through The American Hellscape.

One of the most frightening books I have read. I’d like to hope that Sharlet encountered only a very small slice of The American Citizenry and that their influence on the future of our Country will be minimal.

Unfortunately the geographic and demographic diversity of the folks his trip introduces us to cries out otherwise. That they all cling to a Common Worldview so driven by disappointment, anger, resentment, and grief is absolutely terrifying. How did we create a Society that has led them down this Rabbit Hole and what does that bode for America’s Future?!

I’m glad The Undertow was written and I’m glad that I read it. Five Stars but it has shaken me as no other account. *****