Shakespeare in a Divided America is a history book by author James Shapiro.
New York Times Notable Book

From leading scholar James Shapiro, a timely discovery of what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about our divided land, from the time of the Revolution to the present day.

The plays of William Shakespeare are rare in common in the United States. They are read by almost every student at school, are staged in theaters around the country, and have long been appreciated by conservatives and liberals alike. For more than two centuries, Americans of all walks of life — presidents and activists, writers and military men — have looked to Shakespeare’s works to uncover the nation’s political errors, including political problems. such as clear destiny, race, gender, immigration and free speech.

In a narrative that spans the centuries, from the Revolution to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role Shakespeare’s 400-year-old tragedies and comedies played in unraveling many concerns that American identity has changed. Reflecting on how Shakespeare has been invoked – and sometimes weaponized – at key moments in our past, Shapiro takes us from President John Quincy Adams’ disgust with another marriage Desdemona’s race with Othello, to the competing obsessions of Abraham Lincoln and assassin John Wilkes Booth with plays, through the scathing debates about marriage and same-sex love at the heart of the works. the famous adaptation of Kiss Me, Kate and Shakespeare in Love. His story culminated in the 2017 controversy over the Central Park staging of Julius Caesar, in which a Trump-like leader was assassinated.

Shakespeare in a divided America shows how no writer has been more closely embraced by Americans or has shed more light on burning issues of our history. Indeed, by better understanding Shakespeare’s role in American life, Shapiro argues, we can begin to heal our bitterly divided land.

Shakespeare in a Divided America is a fascinating study of how Shakespeare, whether read or produced, has allowed America to explore its contemporary issues. I find the popularity of plays at any given time most instructive and sometimes surprising. Macbeth is Lincoln’s favorite character – I thought Hamlet was for the melancholy President. The Tempest was little known until the Immigration battles of 1921.

I have to admit that I read this book after the January 6 uprising and Shapiro’s comments on the production of Julius Caesar in The beginning of Trump’s presidency feels almost surreal. What play would that historical event popularize? Macbeth? Coriolanus? Or Richard III? No I expected. I cannot give this book a 5 because there has never been such an amazingly poignant moment. But this book still tells us much about why Shakespeare continues to be read and watched. No one has his own scope and depth. And perhaps no writer can speak of this, our troubled and divided America, like Shakespeare. The rest is silence.

• Shakespeare in a Divided America

• What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future
• By: James Shapiro

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