
If Only They Didn't Speak English
Notes From Trump's America
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Narrated by:
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Jon Sopel
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By:
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Jon Sopel
About this listen
As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has had a pretty busy time of it lately. In the 18 months it's taken for a reality star to go from laughingstock to leader of the free world, Jon has travelled the length and breadth of the United States, experiencing it from a perspective that most of us could only dream of: he has flown aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and has even been described as 'a beauty' by none other than Donald Trump.
Through music, film, literature, TV and even through the food we eat and the clothes that we wear we all have a highly developed sense of what America is and through our shared, tangled history we claim a special relationship. But America today feels about as alien a country as you could imagine. It is fearful, angry and impatient for change. Reflecting on his journey across the continent to cover the most turbulent race in recent history, Jon Sopel lifts a lid on the seething resentments, profound anxieties and sheer rage that found its embodiment in a brash, unpredictable and seemingly unstoppable figure.
In this fascinating, insightful portrait of American life and politics, Jon sets out to answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division and increasingly perverse beliefs.
©2017 Jon Sopel (P)2017 BBC Worldwide LtdIf you were not born yesterday, have spent years watching the news and reading, watching and listening to US cultural output, and have been to the US, then you are not going to find anything particularly surprising in this book.
However, it is well-titled, well organised and entertainingly written, bringing together many of the ways in which are US cousins are so very different to us. It certainly fuels one to get more inside their mindset.
I particularly enjoyed his analysis of the 'special relationship' (and the infamous snub by Obama of Gordon Brown) and also the very entertaining catalogue of fake new stories during the Trump election.
Freed from the shackles of having to give balanced and rather sterile news reports from Washington for the BBC, Sopel's great sense of humour shines through, making this a much better book than I expected.
Very entertaining
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Interestingly presented, easily packaged information and facts
You get a sense of what Jon feels about people and events as the book goes on but he carefully tries to give a balanced view. Not always easy.
If you watch/listen/read and wonder about events across the Atlantic and Britain’s relationship with its old colony, then this is the book for you.
Very interesting and easy to listen to
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This is a brilliantly written synopsis of Jon’s opinion and experience in the USA over the period he lived there.
I love the rounded out chapters which start and end on the same seemingly unrelated item.
Wish I could write like this.
A strikingly good read which would make any reader skeptical of what we see regarding the USA in the news today!
Jon Sopel - If only they didn’t speak English
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How to understand America and Americans
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Very Enjoyable!
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I found the author objective, mostly presenting facts and events and only offering glimpses of personal opinion through his intonation, which made the listening entertaining.
Great insight into American society
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Excellent!
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Really insightful...
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A must listen
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Good Analysis of modern USA
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