Ben Rhodes

A vital account of fifteen speeches and orators – from Benjamin Franklin to Barack Obama – that tells the story of the United States as a battle over what it means to be an American, from a New York Times bestselling author and former presidential speechwriterWhat does it mean to be an American? Since the Founding, Americans have been having an intense debate over this deceptively simple question which has spawned Constitutional crises, civil war, populism, mass migrations, reform movements – and their inevitable backlash. The history of this debate over who and what makes an American, Ben Rhodes argues, is essential to understanding how the United States has evolved as a nation and the intensity of their divisions today.In this book, Rhodes tells the story of fifteen essential speeches – some famous, some obscure - that, together, offer a fresh and revealing portrait of the United States as an ongoing contest over what it means to be American. With rare insight into the power and purpose of political rhetoric, Rhodes illuminates how each speech reflects the nature of American identity at a particular historical moment, with riveting portraits of the people, movements, and social conditions that produced pivotal oratory. Rhode also establishes the unique role of speaking as an act of American political persuasion – from Franklin’s case for compromise at the Constitutional convention to Alexander Stephen’s case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy; or, in social movements, from Martin Luther King’s demand for racial equality at the march on Washington, to Pat Buchanan’s ''culture war'' speech to the 1992 Republican convention which foreshadowed Donald Trump. For a country that values individualism, self-invention, and mass media, Rhodes reminds us that speeches have occupied an out-sized space in the American national imagination: the lone voice before a crowd, bending history to its will.At a time when what it means to be an American is a matter of intense debate and division, Ben Rhodes offers rare insight into the gap between who we say we are, and who we want to be.

To be born American in the late twentieth century was to take the fact of a particular kind of American exceptionalism as granted - a state of nature arrived at after all else had failed. In the span of just thirty years, this assumption would come crashing down. After the fall, we must determine what it means to be American again. In 2017, as Ben Rhodes was helping Barack Obama begin his next chapter, the legacy they worked to build for eight years was being taken apart. To understand what was happening in America, Rhodes decided to look outwards. Over the next three years, he travelled to dozens of countries, meeting with politicians, activists, and dissidents confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that was tearing America apart. Along the way, a Russian opposition leader he spends time with is poisoned, the Hong Kong protesters he comes to know see their movement snuffed out, and America itself reaches the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a second chance. After the Fall is a hugely ambitious and essential work of discovery. Throughout, Rhodes comes to realize how much America's fingerprints are on a world it helped to shape: through the excesses of the post-Cold War embrace of unbridled capitalism, post-9/11 nationalism and militarism, mania for technology and social media, and the racism that shaped the backlash to the Obama presidency. At the same time, he learns from a diverse set of characters - from Obama to rebels to a rising generation of leaders - how looking squarely at where America has gone wrong only makes it more essential to fight for what America is supposed to be - for itself, and for the entire world.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER`One of the most compelling stories I've seen about what it's actually like to serve the American people' BARACK OBAMAA revelatory, behind-the-scenes account of the Obama presidency from perhaps his closest collaborator, and a political memoir about the power of words to change our worldThis is a book about two people making the most important decisions in the world. One is Barack Obama. The other is Ben Rhodes. A young writer and Washington outsider, Rhodes was plucked from obscurity aged 29. For nearly ten years, he was at the centre of the Obama Administration - first as a speech-writer, then a policy maker, and finally a close collaborator. Here, Rhodes tells the full story of his partnership - and, ultimately, friendship - with a historic president. From the early days of the Obama campaign to the final hours in the Oval Office, he puts us in the room at the most tense and poignant moments in recent history. `Vivid, lucid, enjoyable... A compelling account of life in the Obama White House' Justin Webb, The Times`A stylish, beautifully written political memoir' Colum McCann