The American quake

What happens when the proud history of American democracy, forcibly brought back to the present, suddenly becomes the scene of its own destruction? Historian and non-fiction prize winner Christina Morina from Bielefeld University traveled to the famous New York New School as a visiting professor in the fateful year of 2024 - and found herself at the epicenter of a political earthquake. She experienced Donald Trump's fatal comeback at close quarters and a large-scale attempt to shake the core of the democratic order. At the launch of her new non-fiction book "The American Quake", Morina describes in a very personal way how this tectonic shake ate deep into people's everyday lives. But she does not stop at mere observation: Morina astutely places the US crisis in a wider context and asks about the differences to our comparatively recent German experience of democracy. What role do historical wounds play in the here and now, and how can a liberal order be protected against authoritarian access? The history professor returns with lessons from the American wreckage - and presents an urgent wake-up call for the resilience of our own political culture.