If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes From Trump's America

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Remember one strict rule: every time politicians dangle the carrot either in front of the elephant or the donkey – the result will be the same: whirlwind and tornado! It helps us understand some of the entrenched cultural factors that make the US seem so different to the UK and reminds us not to think that because we speak broadly the same language, we’re the same. On the contrary, with the support and impetus from the all-mighty BBC, the second puppeteer’s protégé just as well gets included into the presidential journalist pool.

This is an interesting outsider’s view of American culture and politics, but Sopel overgeneralizes a good bit. Note: segregation in public came to an end only in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed by Lyndon B.Even the title made me sit back and think, yes indeed, had they spoken another language then everything they do differently to us is because, well, they're just another foreign country! Mundanities of life start fading when the media first draw the thin red line disassociating a gritty castle of politicians from ordinary people, and then all of a sudden pull up the drawbridge. His experience of living in a wealthy area and interacting with educated professionals informs his impressions and generalizations of American life. Mr Sopel looks at the various key cultural and social norms that define America and sets it against the rest of the West – especially western Europe – and tries to explain what drives American society, and what its flashpoints are. I’ve never attended a literary event where the raising of hands from the audience was so immediate, so sustained.

Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City once had to contemplate leaving her apartment in Manhattan and moving to Hoboken and the idea of living in Hoboken nearly caused her an emotional breakdown.

In reality however it proved to be that George Orwell was right when wrote as follows: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. A well written account of the things that Jon Sopel really likes about the USA which, thankfully, chimes perfectly with what I've found, travelling there for around ten years.

To give the UK its due, their churches are awesome, and I mean that word in its best sense—awe-inspiring.

The ambition is to probe a bit more deeply, but the author can't get far without his sense of outrage, and what we are left feels a bit too much like a list of what Trump did next. For Jon Sopel, the phenomenon of Donald Trump is the greatest thing that could ever have happened to him, commercially. Beginning and ending with chapters that explain the Trump presidency, such as the anger that got him into power and a new chapter on the first year of chaos in the White House (as well as the surprising resurgence in economic prosperity), there are chapters on religion, race, guns, patriotism, pharmacological abuse and big government. Could have given it five stars but there were some typos, the tone of voice got a bit tedious and there were some odd uses of commas.