by David Mamet
First published 2025
David Mamet examines how America's ruling class transforms democratic institutions into instruments of control. The former liberal playwright argues that elites manipulate media and culture to maintain their grip on power, much like the mythical Circe who turned men into animals. Mamet draws connections between political theater and actual theater, using his knowledge of both worlds to reveal the mechanisms of manipulation. He explores subjects ranging from warfare to romance, from achievement to mortality, all through the lens of institutional corruption. The author peppers his analysis with references to gangster films, using cinematic metaphors to illustrate how power operates in modern America. Mamet contends that traditional American values face systematic attack from the very institutions meant to protect them. His observations span the circus atmosphere of contemporary politics to the weaponization of language itself. The book represents a dramatic ideological shift for Mamet, who now critiques the cultural environment that once shaped his artistic development.
Genres: american-fiction, american, political-science, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary, unreliable-narrator
Setting: America
Period: 21st-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Broadside Books