A Second American Reconstruction? forces us to consider the possibility of learning a valuable lesson about America’s current disunity via a “Trumpian Revolution” by testing Professor D. J. Boorstin’s hypothesis: whenever the American people fail to unite behind the presidential victor of a major party (reflective of Lincoln in 1860), it causes that party, like the nation itself, to be reconstructed.

The parallel extremes of disunity between Lincoln’s victory in 1860 and Trump’s in 2017 is illustrated by showing the timeless “built-in” conflict between American’s motto: “E Pluribus Unum.”

About the Author

Robert W. Taylor, PhD served as a public high school history teacher for thirty years and as an adjunct professor of American history for the past fifteen years. Having graduated magna cum laude from both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of Fairleigh Dickinson University, he has received recognition for his volunteer service from the Department of the Interior for living history demonstrations at Saratoga National Historic Park in Stillwater, New York. Owning a “hobby farm” across the Hudson River, from this “turning point” of the American Revolution, he enjoyed much of his service to the park, playing American and British field music on his violin.

Professor Taylor currently resides in Hackensack, New Jersey.