Now What: The Voters Have SpokenEssays on Life After Trump

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When the networks called the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden on Saturday, November 7, 2020, people from coast to coast exhaledand danced in the streets. This quick-turnaround volume, a collection of 38 personal essays from writers all over the countrymany of Americas most thoughtful voices, as Jon Meacham puts itcaptures the week Trump was voted out, a unique juncture in American life, and helps point toward a way forward to a nation less divided.

An eclectic lineup of contributorsfrom Rosanna Arquette, Susan Bro and General Wesley Clark to Keith Olbermann, Stewart O'Nan and Anthony Scaramucciputs a year of transition into perspective, and summons the anxieties and hopes so many have for better times ahead.

As award-winning columnist Mary C. Curtis writes in the lead essay, Saying youre not interested in politics is dangerous because, like it or not, politics is interested in you.

Novelist Christopher Buckley, a former speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, laments, The Republican Senate, with one exception, has become a stay of ovine, lickspittle quislings, degenerate descendants of such giants as Everett Dirksen, Barry Goldwater, Howard Baker and John McCain.

Nero Award-winning mystery novelist Stephen Mack Jones writes, to Donald Trump, Remember: You live in my house. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is my house. My ancestors built it at a cost of blood, soul and labor. I pay my taxes every year to feed you, clothe you and your family and staff and fly you around the country and the world in my tricked-out private jet. If you violate any aspect of your four-year leaseany aspectLord Jesus so help me, I will do everything in my power to kick yo narrow ass to the curb.

As Publisher Steve Kettmann writes in the Introduction: The hope is that in putting out these glimpses so quickly, giving them an immediacy unusual in book publishing, we can help in the mourning for all that has been lost, help in the healing (of ourselves and of our country), and help in the pained effort, like moving limbs that have gone numb from inactivity, to give new life to our democracy. We stared into the abyss, tottered on the edge, and a record-setting surge of voting and activism delivered us from the very real threat of plunging into autocracy.

Reviews

An extraordinary new book. ... Thirty-eight contributors -- a mix of writers, athletes, politicians, actors, lawyers and activists, some famous, some not -- weigh in on this most consequential unknown -- what happens once Trump leaves office. It was riveting to read these raw, immediate reflections by everyone from Reverend Al Sharpton to Anthony Scaramucci, who famously served only 11 days as White House communications director. This will be an important reference text for future generations trying to understand this moment in history. --Janine Zacharia, San Francisco Chronicle

Advance praise for Now What

"It's the great question of our time: Where do we go from the chaos of the past four years In this insightful and wide-ranging collection, many of America's most thoughtful voices offer their views of the next chapter of our national life. Onward!" --Jon Meacham, author of His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope.

At times mordant, at other times filled with moral fervor, the essays collected in Now What share a common theme, an urgent call for the country to reckon with the last four years and consider how, if at all, we move forward. --Clay Risen, author of The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century.

"America has great work to do in rebuilding our democracy and the shared sense of purpose that Donald Trump tried, but failed, to knock down. Challenge yourself on where we go from here by reading the many colorful and eloquent perspectives found in Now What--Congressman Eric Swalwell

Personal and family histories meet reminiscences of the past four years meet hopes and dreams for the road ahead. A fascinating snapshot of a unique and crucial moment in time. --Emily Mitchell, author, The Last Summer of the World.

"A very insightful and entertaining collection of thoughts from a diverse group of leaders. Most of these chapters explain what many, most, or at least 81 million people in America thought of the current administration and the historical significance of the 2020 election. Fortunately, the country was better prepared in 2020 to combat foreign influence in our electoral process as compared to 2016. Now What I'm not sure, but one thing I know is that we have to learn from the past four years and confront anti-democratic values from both within and outside our country." --James Trainor, former FBI Assistant Director.