Description
As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has experienced 'the Greatest Country on Earth' from a perspective that most could only dream of: he has travelled aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and seen first-hand the gaudy splendour of Donald Trump's billion-dollar empire. Jon has also witnessed the darker side of the United States today. He was on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri as the riots took hold; he has visited gun shows, where lethal weapons are exhibited and sold like DIY tools; and he has listened to would-be-presidents turn TV evangelists, as they place their judgements in the hands of a god in whom they believe unquestioningly.What Jon has discovered, is that for all we think we know the USA, it is ' now more than ever ' a truly foreign land. If Only They Didn't Speak English is a fascinating, insightful, portrait of American life and politics seen through British eyes. With the combination of Jon's political expertise (as a BBC correspondent of more than 20 years) and his own stories from on the ground, it 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.
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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.
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