KUT Interview: Author Ben Fountain On "Beautiful Country Burn Again"

The investigation continues into a series of explosive devices sent in late October to prominent Democrats and critics of President Donald Trump. The President tweeted he believes what he calls “fake news” is responsible for much of today’s anger. How did the United States reach a point where stuff like this happens? Texas author Ben Fountain covered the 2016 presidential campaign for the British newspaper The Guardian – and that same question kept coming up for him during and after that election. His Guardian assignment, and some additional thoughts, form his new book "Beautiful Country Burn Again." Fountain told KUT's Jennifer Stayton he thinks the country has “burned” and reinvented itself twice before: the Civil War and Emancipation; and then the Great Depression and the New Deal. His book’s title implies that he thinks we are close again: