Play Audiobook Sample
Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
In a sweeping work of reportage set over the course of 2016, New York Times bestselling author Ben Fountain recounts a surreal year of politics and an exploration of the third American existential crisis
Twice before in its history, the United States has been faced with a crisis so severe it was forced to reinvent itself in order to survive: first, the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War, and the second, the Great Depression, which led to President Roosevelt’s New Deal and the establishment of America as a social-democratic state. In a sequence of essays that excavate the past while laying bare the political upheaval of 2016, Ben Fountain argues that the United States may be facing a third existential crisis, one that will require a “burning” of the old order as America attempts to remake itself.
Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s southern strategy, to our weaponized new conception of American exceptionalism, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump.
In an urgent and deeply incisive voice, Ben Fountain has fused history and the present day to paint a startling portrait of the state of our nation. Beautiful Country Burn Again is a searing indictment of how we came to this point, and where we may be headed.
Download and start listening now!
“Narrator Ron Butler puts forth a bronze-star-worthy effort in the face of this relentless barrage of facts and anecdotes…[which] in print it could be a depressing read and easily set aside. Enter our heroic narrator, Butler, who takes up the charge for us, attacking the text with real skill and precision. In the end, it might be hard to determine if you are shell-shocked by Fountain’s writing or if it’s Butler’s mastery of it that has blown your mind. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
-
“A memorable and unique portrait of…an American moment which is likely to shape us for far longer than any of us would like to contemplate.”
— Jon Meacham, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“Suggest[s] that from the ashes, a better nation can rise. Forget the eagle; maybe our true mascot is the phoenix.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“Force[s] a reader to think hard about the sudden disappearance of familiar patterns of politics and government.”
— Washington Post -
“Whip-smart and searching in its indictment of cant and falsity, this is perhaps the best portrait yet of an astounding election.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“Pithy and profound, Fountain’s political observations fly off the page in a torrent of mantra-worthy quotes, while his historical analyses stun with their depth of research and relevance.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Brilliantly argued…If this country can find writers like Ben Fountain to chronicle its most miserable hours, it can’t be all bad.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books -
“The author’s masterful original phrasings make the book worthwhile, urgent, and timely.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“What a masterpiece of a book, the true story of American possibility. It is so smart, so morally honest, that I hope every word will find its way into the coarsening minds and hearts of every American.”
— David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service -
“The force and beauty of Fountain’s writing, his clear-eyed fury, his commitment to what is great about the American idea, make for exhilarating reading. A book for right now, and for all the fires next time.”
— Alma Guillermoprieto, author of Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution -
“Thank God for Ben Fountain. He reminds us of another American Ben F.: Franklin. Here is a quirky truth teller, a creative, who is attempting to steer America on a path that will bring some goodness to the most of us. Beautiful Country Burn Again is funny and fair, written with a novelist’s skill of heart and with a researcher’s expertise.”
— Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning
Awards
-
An Oprah’s Book Club Selection
-
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
Beautiful Country Burn Again Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Ben Fountain
Ben Fountain’s work has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
About Ron Butler
Ron Butler is a Los Angeles–based actor, Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator, and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits. Most kids will recognize him from the three seasons he spent on Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP. He works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has voiced a wide variety of audiobooks. He is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company and an Independent Filmmaker Project Award winner for his work in the HBO film Everyday People.