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A firsthand account by journalist Jared Yates Sexton of the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that divided both parties and powered Donald Trump into the White House. Featuring field reports and deep analysis, it´s the story of the most divisive election in modern political history and a sobering chronicle of the US democracy´s political polarization.

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"Sexton grapples with the Trump campaign from the perspective of the crowds reveling in the candidate´s presence and message. It is a useful vantage point given the increasingly blatant bigotry in the months since the election." -The Washington Post

The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore is a firsthand account of the events that shaped the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that powered Donald Trump into the White House. Includes an all new afterword that details the first year of the Trump presidency.

"With a novelist´s flair for the dramatic scene and evocative detail, Sexton expertly marries the quotidian tedium of the campaign trail (so many hotel room beers) and the outlandish circumstances of this particular election season with his astute observations about our polarized national condition." -Salon

"This is the post-campaign book I was waiting for. Essential reading for understanding this country now and going forward." -Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

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CONTENTS

PROLOGUE: Ugly Vibrations in These United States vii

PART ONE: SLEEP OF REASON BREEDS MONSTERS

CHAPTER 1: Canaries in the Coal Mine 3

CHAPTER 2: The American Dream Is Dead 21

CHAPTER 3: Nine Dead in Charleston 29

CHAPTER 4: The Ego Is Not Master in Its Own House 43

CHAPTER 5: They´re Tryin´ to Win This Thing 57

CHAPTER 6: Life Outside the Cloud 69

CHAPTER 7: The End of an Uneasy Truce 83

CHAPTER 8: The Joke Is Over 93

PART TWO: THE SUMMER OF RAGE

CHAPTER 9: An American Horror Story 107

CHAPTER 10: The Road to Ohio 119

CHAPTER 11: There Will Be Blood 133

CHAPTER 12: A Nation Forever on the Brink 143

CHAPTER 13: When the Devil´s at Your Door

the republican national convention 151

CHAPTER 14: The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore

the democratic national convention 169

CHAPTER 15: Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic 181

CHAPTER 16: The Green Party National Convention 191

PART THREE: A NEW KIND OF RELIGION

CHAPTER 17: A Voice for the People 203

CHAPTER 18: A Tiger by Its Tail 217

CHAPTER 19: The Cult of the Movement 229

CHAPTER 20: We Come to the End 239

CHAPTER 21: Anatomy of a Car Crash 249

CHAPTER 22: Waiting for the End of the World 263

EPILOGUE: We the People 279

AFTERWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 289

NOTES 291

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