Publisher Description
The bestselling author, political analyst, and civil rights expert delivers a forceful critique of the Trump administration’s ignorant and unprecedented rollback of the civil rights movement.
In this powerful and timely book, civil rights historian and political analyst Juan Williams denounces Donald Trump for intentionally twisting history to fuel racial tensions for his political advantage. In Williams’s lifetime, crusaders for civil rights have braved hatred, violence, and imprisonment, and in so doing made life immeasurably better for African Americans and other marginalized groups. Remarkably, all this progress suddenly seems to have been forgotten — or worse, undone. The stirring history of hard-fought and heroic battles for voting rights, integrated schools, and more is under direct threat from an administration dedicated to restricting these basic freedoms.
Williams pulls the fire alarm on the Trump administration’s policies, which pose a threat to civil rights without precedent in modern America. What the Hell Do You Have to Lose? makes a searing case for the enduring value of our historic accomplishments and what happens if they are lost.
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By contrasting the Trump administration’s blatant attempts to rewrite history to suit their goals with accounts of what really happened, Williams highlights the current administration’s total lack of regard for African Americans. It’s a powerful and effective structure; a call-and-response demonstrating the bleak parallels between today and past decades and the razor-thin line we walk to avoid returning to a past of intolerance. Williams’ book shows not only that progress can be easily lost but also highlights the slow, painful successes of the civil rights movement, and how depressingly small some of its victories seem. Thanks in no small part to its author’s writing, What the Hell Do You Have to Lose? is a civil rights lesson that’s needed now more than ever before.
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Anna Sheffer, MediumÂ
