If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes From Trump's America

Product Description

You see, if only they didn't speak English in America, then we'd treat it as a foreign country - and probably understand it a lot better'

As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has experienced the United States from a perspective that most of us could only dream of- he has flown aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and was famously described as 'a beauty' by Donald Trump.

Through music, film, literature, TV and even through the food we eat and the clothes that we wear we all have a highly developed sense of what America is and through our shared, tangled history we claim a special relationship. But America today feels about as alien a country as you could imagine. It is fearful, angry and impatient for change.

In this fascinating, insightful portrait of American life and politics, Jon Sopel sets out to answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams, but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division and increasingly perverse beliefs.You see, if only they didn't speak English in America, then we'd treat it as a foreign country - and probably understand it a lot better'

As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has experienced the United States from a perspective that most of us could only dream of- he has flown aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and was famously described as 'a beauty' by Donald Trump.

Through music, film, literature, TV and even through the food we eat and the clothes that we wear we all have a highly developed sense of what America is and through our shared, tangled history we claim a special relationship. But America today feels about as alien a country as you could imagine. It is fearful, angry and impatient for change.

In this fascinating, insightful portrait of American life and politics, Jon Sopel sets out to answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams, but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division and increasingly perverse beliefs.
Jon Sopel has been the BBC's North America Editor since 2014. As a BBC presenter of 16 years, Jon has worked variously as the corporation's Paris Correspondent, Chief Political Correspondent, hosted both The Politics Show and Newsnight and is a regular on HARDtalk, as well as a number of Radio 4 programmes. As North America Editor, Jon has covered the 2016 election at first hand, reporting for the BBC across TV, radio, and online - accompanying President Obama on Air Force One and interviewing him at the White House. He has travelled extensively across the US and recently rode a Harley Davidson down the West Coast (that wasn't for work though). He lives in Washington and London.