In his 2020 book American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton took a hard look at our nation's history: namely, the abuses committed by those in power, and the comforting myths that provided them cover and shaped the way we view ourselves up to the present. His approach and the narrative he uncovered proved worryingly relevant, as Americans have struggled with an identity crisis in an increasingly divided public square. Now, in THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM, Sexton applies this lens on a global scale. Starting in ancient Rome and working its way to modern times, the narrative focuses on three intertwined forces, all foundational to the concept of 'the West:' political power, religious indoctrination, and economic dominance. Along the way, Sexton exposes the hypocrisy and conspiratorial thinking that informed Western society's self-image and inspired its many conquests. He examines many societies throughout history that took a more egalitarian approach to gender, religion, and community - and were subjugated and exploited in return. Perhaps most importantly, he tugs at the threads connecting the mythic past to the complexities of today: the rise of imperialism, the terrible power of capital, and the rise of political and religious extremism. Bracing and compulsively readable, THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM takes a critical look at the forces that have shaped humanity for centuries - and invites us to seek a radically different future.

From writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton comes an eye-opening journey through American history that unearths and debunks the myths we've always told ourselves.  Recent years have brought a reckoning in America. As rampant political corruption, stark inequality, and violent bigotry have come to the fore, many have faced two vital questions: How did we get here? And how do we move forward? An honest look at the past—and how it’s been covered up—is the only way to find the answers. Americans in power have abused and subjugated others since the nation’s very beginning, and myths of America’s unique goodness have both enabled that injustice and buried the truth for generations. In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton blends deep research with stunning storytelling, digging into each era of growth and change that led us here—and laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of the American imagination. Stirring, unequivocal, and impossible to put down, American Rule tells the truth about what this nation has always been—and challenges us to forge a new path.

"Sexton’s first-person account is both candidly relatable and viscerally frightening . . . [His] seamless blending of his reporter’s objectivity with the personal evaluations of a voter who has skin in the game yields trenchant analysis . . . Sexton’s is a critical and important voice in helping readers understand the cultural and political sea change the election created." —Booklist (starred review)When he agreed to cover the 2016 election season,journalist Jared Yates Sexton didn''t know he wasstepping into what would become—for both politicalparties—the most rageful and divisive political circusin U.S. history.His initial dispatches showed Democrats atwar with their establishment, coming apart at theseams over the long-gestating ascendancy of HillaryClinton and the upstart momentum of BernieSanders, whose grassroots campaign provoked uprisingsof people desperate for change. Then, onJune 14, Sexton attended a Donald Trump rallyin Greensboro, North Carolina. One of the firstjournalists to witness these rallies and give mainstreamreaders an idea of the raw anger that occurredthere, Sexton found himself in the center ofa maelstrom. Following a series of tweets that sawhis observations viewed well over 1 million times,his reporting was soon featured in The WashingtonPost, NPR, Bloomberg, and Mother Jones, and hewould go on to write two pieces for The New YorkTimes. Sexton gained more than 18,000 followerson Twitter in a matter of days, and received onlineharassments, campaigns to get him fired from hisuniversity professorship, and death threats thatchanged his life forever.The People Are Going to Rise Like the WatersUpon Your Shore is a firsthand account of the eventsthat shaped the 2016 presidential election and thecultural forces that divided both parties and poweredDonald Trump into the White House. Featuringin-the-field reports as well as deep analysis, Sexton''sbook is not just the story of the most unexpected and divisive election in modern political history. Itis also a sobering chronicle of our democracy''s politicalpolarization—a result of our self-constructed,technologically assisted echo chambers.Like the works of Hunter S. Thompson andNorman Mailer—books that have paved the way forimportant narratives that shape how we perceivenot only the politics of our time but also our way oflife—The People Are Going to Rise Like the WatersUpon Your Shore is an instant classic, an authoritativedepiction of a country struggling to make sense of itself.

The author of The People Are Going to Rise Upon Your Shore turns his keen eye to our current crisis of masculinity using his upbringing in a rural, patriarchal home as an entry point to consider the personal and societal dangers of performative genderBased on his provocative and popular New York Times op-ed, The Man They Wanted Me to Be is both memoir and cultural analysis. Jared Yates Sexton alternates between an examination of his working class upbringing and historical, psychological, and sociological sources that examine the genesis of toxic masculinity and its consequences for society.As progressivism changes American society, and globalism shifts labor away from traditional manufacturing, the roles that have been prescribed to men since the Industrial Revolution have been rendered as obsolete. Donald Trump''s campaign successfully leveraged male resentment and entitlement, and now, with Trump as president and the rise of the #MeToo movement, it’s clearer than ever what a problem performative masculinity is. Deeply personal and thoroughly researched, The Man They Wanted Me to Be examines how we teach boys what’s expected of men in America, and the long term effects of that socialization—which include depression, suicide, misogyny, and, ultimately, shorter lives. Sexton turns his keen eye to the establishment of the racist patriarchal structure which has favored white men, and investigates the personal and societal dangers of such outdated definitions of manhood.

In his 2020 book American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton took a hard look at our nation's history: namely, the abuses committed by those in power, and the comforting myths that provided them cover and shaped the way we view ourselves up to the present. His approach and the narrative he uncovered proved worryingly relevant, as Americans have struggled with an identity crisis in an increasingly divided public square. Now, in THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM, Sexton applies this lens on a global scale. Starting in ancient Rome and working its way to modern times, the narrative focuses on three intertwined forces, all foundational to the concept of 'the West:' political power, religious indoctrination, and economic dominance. Along the way, Sexton exposes the hypocrisy and conspiratorial thinking that informed Western society's self-image and inspired its many conquests. He examines many societies throughout history that took a more egalitarian approach to gender, religion, and community - and were subjugated and exploited in return. Perhaps most importantly, he tugs at the threads connecting the mythic past to the complexities of today: the rise of imperialism, the terrible power of capital, and the rise of political and religious extremism. Bracing and compulsively readable, THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM takes a critical look at the forces that have shaped humanity for centuries - and invites us to seek a radically different future.

From writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton comes an eye-opening journey through American history that unearths and debunks the myths we've always told ourselves.  Recent years have brought a reckoning in America. As rampant political corruption, stark inequality, and violent bigotry have come to the fore, many have faced two vital questions: How did we get here? And how do we move forward? An honest look at the past—and how it’s been covered up—is the only way to find the answers. Americans in power have abused and subjugated others since the nation’s very beginning, and myths of America’s unique goodness have both enabled that injustice and buried the truth for generations. In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton blends deep research with stunning storytelling, digging into each era of growth and change that led us here—and laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of the American imagination. Stirring, unequivocal, and impossible to put down, American Rule tells the truth about what this nation has always been—and challenges us to forge a new path.

"Sexton’s first-person account is both candidly relatable and viscerally frightening . . . [His] seamless blending of his reporter’s objectivity with the personal evaluations of a voter who has skin in the game yields trenchant analysis . . . Sexton’s is a critical and important voice in helping readers understand the cultural and political sea change the election created." —Booklist (starred review)When he agreed to cover the 2016 election season,journalist Jared Yates Sexton didn''t know he wasstepping into what would become—for both politicalparties—the most rageful and divisive political circusin U.S. history.His initial dispatches showed Democrats atwar with their establishment, coming apart at theseams over the long-gestating ascendancy of HillaryClinton and the upstart momentum of BernieSanders, whose grassroots campaign provoked uprisingsof people desperate for change. Then, onJune 14, Sexton attended a Donald Trump rallyin Greensboro, North Carolina. One of the firstjournalists to witness these rallies and give mainstreamreaders an idea of the raw anger that occurredthere, Sexton found himself in the center ofa maelstrom. Following a series of tweets that sawhis observations viewed well over 1 million times,his reporting was soon featured in The WashingtonPost, NPR, Bloomberg, and Mother Jones, and hewould go on to write two pieces for The New YorkTimes. Sexton gained more than 18,000 followerson Twitter in a matter of days, and received onlineharassments, campaigns to get him fired from hisuniversity professorship, and death threats thatchanged his life forever.The People Are Going to Rise Like the WatersUpon Your Shore is a firsthand account of the eventsthat shaped the 2016 presidential election and thecultural forces that divided both parties and poweredDonald Trump into the White House. Featuringin-the-field reports as well as deep analysis, Sexton''sbook is not just the story of the most unexpected and divisive election in modern political history. Itis also a sobering chronicle of our democracy''s politicalpolarization—a result of our self-constructed,technologically assisted echo chambers.Like the works of Hunter S. Thompson andNorman Mailer—books that have paved the way forimportant narratives that shape how we perceivenot only the politics of our time but also our way oflife—The People Are Going to Rise Like the WatersUpon Your Shore is an instant classic, an authoritativedepiction of a country struggling to make sense of itself.

The author of The People Are Going to Rise Upon Your Shore turns his keen eye to our current crisis of masculinity using his upbringing in a rural, patriarchal home as an entry point to consider the personal and societal dangers of performative genderBased on his provocative and popular New York Times op-ed, The Man They Wanted Me to Be is both memoir and cultural analysis. Jared Yates Sexton alternates between an examination of his working class upbringing and historical, psychological, and sociological sources that examine the genesis of toxic masculinity and its consequences for society.As progressivism changes American society, and globalism shifts labor away from traditional manufacturing, the roles that have been prescribed to men since the Industrial Revolution have been rendered as obsolete. Donald Trump''s campaign successfully leveraged male resentment and entitlement, and now, with Trump as president and the rise of the #MeToo movement, it’s clearer than ever what a problem performative masculinity is. Deeply personal and thoroughly researched, The Man They Wanted Me to Be examines how we teach boys what’s expected of men in America, and the long term effects of that socialization—which include depression, suicide, misogyny, and, ultimately, shorter lives. Sexton turns his keen eye to the establishment of the racist patriarchal structure which has favored white men, and investigates the personal and societal dangers of such outdated definitions of manhood.