In the midst of this once-in-a-century public health crisis, the United
States was almost toppled from within by one of the two national
political parties that a white-supremacist authoritarian had
commandeered. For decades, American workers had been losing their
leverage, as the world's biggest corporations were able to successfully
play one country's workforce off another. For centuries, we have failed
to directly address the crimes against humanity that were the
cornerstones of American capitalism and are part of the continuum that
extends systemic racism to our current circumstances. Our global brand
may be equality, but the lived experience of tens of millions of
Americans is the stark opposite, and there can be no forward motion if
we fail to perceive just how deep a rut we are in. Stuck Nation is the
work of award-winning print and broadcast journalist Robert "Bob"
Hennelly. Its depth reflects his many decades of on-the-ground
reporting, from the streets to historical archives and the White House.
In his reporting and in this book, Hennelly bears witness to the ongoing
assault of systemic racism, the toll from the World Trade Center toxic
exposures, the attacks on our civil service by our own government, the
breathtaking concentration of corporate media, the power of our
collective agency, and more. It features interviews with the key players
and shapers of history - everyday people - as well as with union leaders
and politicians, historians and academics, organizers and activists.
Stuck Nation lifts up the stories of those whom our capitalist system
would otherwise see 'disappeared'. It bears the human cost of our system
and our silence. It holds accounts of individuals and a broader movement
willing to put everything at risk to change our national narrative.
Through it all, Hennelly shares his observations on the origins of our
national stuck-ness, his reporting on how it endures, and his analysis
of what might be required for us to change the course of our historical
patterns, so that America can begin putting the wellbeing of its people
ahead of its profits.
