How We See It: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump

“What is happening today in America is part of a global political turn,” Madeleine Schwartz, editor-in-chief of the Dial, writes in her introduction to this illuminating anthology of reflections from foreign journalists on U.S. politics. What’s odd, she continues, “is how little the American people” seem to realize it. Writers from 12 countries consider America’s descent into Trumpism, rampant poverty, and growing attacks on human rights, along the way interrogating the impact of U.S. politics abroad. Indian journalist Saumya Roy compares homelessness in California to slums in Mumbai, finding the latter’s poor “do not carry around the devastating sense of shame and loneliness I witnessed on the streets of San Francisco.” Ukrainian writer Nataliya Gumenyuk considers how, despite Ukraine’s growing dependence on American military protection, “rarely have the two countries felt so far apart in how each sees the world.” Author Kaya Genç draws parallels between Trump and Turkish president Recep Erdoğan, and Buenos Aires journalist Lucía Cholakian Herrera explores how American dollars have become the most valuable currency in Argentina, even as their international value plummets. These fascinating outsider perspectives not only ground American problems in wider trends, but often show the U.S. as responsible for worsening conditions elsewhere. The result is a much needed reality check. (June)