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.

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.

Fair

This writer provides some insights that are not demeaning about why people go for Trump. Some are observations I have made as well.

Brave, Informed, Essential

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

Whiteness & the bolstering of incel militanism

i was raised a charismatic, fundamentalist Chrstian hiding in the "non-demoninational" wing in Portland, OR in the 90s and 00s. reminded me of the neonazi indoctrination I got as a missionary kid with Y.W.A.M.'s "King's Kids." The story of the penecostals and the heart attack reminded me of my own childhood, of adult men who pushed my child body onto the carpet "in the spirit." Thank you for showing us how the insurrection happened from the perspective of those fascists. it is important to document, even with guns pointed at you.