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Vaughn Public Library - Ashland

Unthinkable: trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher:
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date:
[2022]
Edition:
First edition
Language:
English
Description

A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence. 

On December 31, 2020, Tommy Raskin, the only son of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, tragically took his own life after a long struggle with depression. Seven days later on January 6, Congressman Raskin returned to Congress to help certify the 2020 Presidential election results, when violent insurrectionists led by right wing extremist groups stormed the U.S. Capitol hoping to hand four more years of power to President Donald Trump. As our reeling nation mourned the deaths of numerous people and lamented the injuries of more than 140 police officers hurt in the attack, Congressman Raskin, a Constitutional law professor, was called upon to put aside his overwhelming grief—both personal and professional—and lead the impeachment effort against President Trump for inciting the violence. Together this nine-member team of House impeachment managers riveted a nation still in anguish, putting on an unprecedented Senate trial that produced the most bipartisan Presidential impeachment vote in American history. 

Now for the first time, Congressman Raskin discusses this unimaginable convergence of personal and public trauma, detailing how the painful loss of his son and the power of Tommy’s convictions fueled the Congressman’s work in the aftermath of modern democracy’s darkest day. Going inside Congress on January 6, he recounts the horror of that day, a day that he and other Democrats had spent months preparing for under the correct assumption that they would encounter an attempted electoral coup—not against a President but for one. And yet, on January 6, he faced the one thing he had failed to anticipate: mass political violence designed to block Biden’s election. With an inside account of leading the team prosecuting President Trump in the Senate, Congressman Raskin shares never before told stories of just how close we came to losing our democracy that fateful day and lays out the methodical prosecution that convinced Democrats and Republicans alike of Trump’s responsibility for inciting insurrectionary violence against our government. 

Through it all, he reckons with the loss of his brilliant, remarkable son, a Harvard Law student whose values and memory continually inspired the Congressman to confront the dark impulses unleashed by Donald Trump. At turns, a moving story of a father coping with his pain and a revealing examination of holding President Trump accountable for the violence he fomented, this book is a vital reminder of the ongoing struggle for the soul of American democracy and the perseverance that our Constitution demands from us all. 

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ISBN:
9780063209787
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDefda08c9-5b20-7423-866f-8673311c7c66
Grouping Titleunthinkable trauma truth and the trials of american democracy
Grouping Authorjamin b raskin
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-25 20:07:06PM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 05:54:24AM

Solr Fields

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Ashland Vaughn Public Library
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The Maryland congressman tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life--and his family's--as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in the Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.
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Ashland Vaughn Public Library
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Ashland Vaughn Public Library
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9780063209787
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2022
publisher
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Autobiographies
Capitol Riot, Washington, D.C., 2021
Grief
Legislators -- United States -- Biography
Raskin, Jamin B
Raskin, Jamin B. -- Family
Trump, Donald, -- 1946- -- Impeachment
United States. -- Congress. -- House -- Biography
title_display
Unthinkable : trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy
title_full
Unthinkable : trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy / Jamie Raskin
title_short
Unthinkable
title_sub
trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy
topic_facet
Capitol Riot, Washington, D.C., 2021
Family
Grief
Impeachment
Legislators
Raskin, Jamin B
Trump, Donald

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ils:.b21023475BookBooksFirst editionEnglishHarper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers[2022]xv, 428 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cm

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