Trump and the death of the American Dream Donald Trump, surely the most controversial US President in a generation, rode to power on a ticket of reviving the American dream and a pledge of ”America First”;  iconic American phrases which come with complex and controversial historical baggage. Sarah Churchwell shared with guests how these two, potent expressions have acquired immense cultural and political power in the US, and explored how their origins in the early 20th century can help explain the appeal of the Trump presidency in the early part of the 21st, taking us deep into the heart of the battle for the identity of modern America.

Thank you to haysmacintyre, Sarah Churchwell, The Goring for hosting us, to Sumaridge for the wines and Laurent-Perrier for the champagne.

For more information on Walpole's events, please contact [email protected]. For more images from this event, please click here.

SARAH CHURCHWELL is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Her literary journalism has appeared widely in newspapers including the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement and New York Times Book Review, and she comments regularly on arts, culture, and politics for television and radio, where appearances include Question Time, Newsnight and The Review Show. She has judged many literary prizes, including the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and she was a co-winner of the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award. Her new book, Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream, is published by Bloomsbury in May 2018.