Red, White and Blown: Is the United States of America a Cult? (The Crikey Read)

From renowned journalist Guy Rundle, Red, White and Blown is a piercing and provocative investigation into the United States' resolute failure to reckon with its own divisions and blind spots. Interrogating the political events of the 2022 midterm elections as well as their cultural and historical backdrop, this latest book from the Crikey Reads series asks us to frankly consider the US for what it may have ultimately become: a cult.

From the Orange People in Oregon to the Moonies with their stadium weddings, the US is a country where cults have easily taken a foothold since the 1970s. But do those crazed origins stem much further back? Could the US perhaps itself be likened to a cult – one that has acquired immense power and imposed its vision on millions, but has now found its impossible fantasy collapsing from within, prompting it to do what cults always do: believe in magic and look for enemies?

With this necessary and fresh perspective, Rundle allows us to slot the inexplicable nature of the US into place. Red, White and Blown gives the Australian reader a tour through the embattled republic and poses a question: why are we slavishly attaching ourselves to a potential cult, when we have so far successfully avoided the very things that have made the US so?

From Crikey and Hardie Grant Books, The Crikey Read is a series that brings an unflinching and truly independent eye to the issues of the day in Australia and the world.