If Only They Didnt Speak English, Jon Sopel
If Only They Didnt Speak English, Jon Sopel
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If Only They Didn't Speak English
Notes From Trump's America

Author: Jon Sopel

Narrator: Jon Sopel

Unabridged: 9 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: BBC Digital

Published: 09/07/2017


Synopsis

As the BBC’s North America Editor, Jon Sopel has had a pretty busy time of it lately. In the 18 months it’s taken for a reality star to go from laughingstock to leader of the free world, Jon has travelled the length and breadth of the United States, experiencing it from a perspective that most of us could only dream of: he has flown aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and has even been described as ‘a beauty’ by none other than 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. Reflecting on his journey across the continent to cover the most turbulent race in recent history, Jon Sopel lifts a lid on the seething resentments, profound anxieties and sheer rage that found its embodiment in a brash, unpredictable and seemingly unstoppable figure.

In this fascinating, insightful portrait of American life and politics, Jon 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Baba on August 04, 2025

Such an awesome read, that pulls no punches. BBC North America editor takes a deep dive at America after the first ascension of Trump. What I thoroughly liked about this book was that it discarded the often quoted, but in my opinion outrageous falsehood that 'both sides are as bad as the other', and......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on October 09, 2022

Jon Sopel is a respected (and as anyone paying attention to the recent gender pay debates will know, very well paid) journalist who works for the BBC. As North American Editor, he’s lived in Washington DC since 2014. One amusing recollection I have is of Donald Trump’s reaction to Sopel at a heated......more

Goodreads review by Serena on August 15, 2024

The book is funny, and it’s interesting election season reading. It discusses some broad cultural themes that are helpful to keep in mind when trying to make sense of US politics as an outsider (religion, small government, patriotism, guns… all the usual stuff). I found the chapter on the US-UK dipl......more

Goodreads review by Paul on October 31, 2020

I read the original version of "If Only", which doesn't have the extra chapter about Trump's first year in power. I don't know if anything major was fixed in a later edition... Chapter 1, Anger "We are free, impartial and fair" - Chapter 1, Anger Hah, hahaha... wait, you're serious? You said in a recent......more

Goodreads review by Michael on September 11, 2020

Slick insight into a foreign land Overcoming the illusion that America is just like South London, this book explains why the US is so different with its self-reliance, distrust of government, high levels of religion and love of guns. Tackling Trump*s distaste for the truth and grumpy pessimistic abou......more


Quotes

Jon Sopel may be the sanest man in America. He is certainly one of the most insightful … Immensely enjoyable Bill Bryson

Jon Sopel nails it … If Only They Didn’t Speak English is an entertaining and enlightening stock take of how we got here. Emily Maitlis, Presenter, BBC Newsnight

A wonderfully readable, perceptive account of what America looks like today through the eyes of a seasoned, informed but ultimately sympathetic observer. He addresses head-on such difficult questions as why it is America's most God-fearing opponents of abortion who are also the most passionate supporters of the gun lobby and the death penalty. He reminds us that President Trump's "America First" policy is nothing new – but that America made an invaluable contribution to Western Europe's defence of its liberty in two world wars. And he describes graphically how US Presidential politics became Reality TV in 2016, leaving us, rightly, with a deep sense of unease about the way fake facts and bare-faced lies, often encouraged by enemies of democracy abroad, now pose a real threat to the survival of our values and institutions. Read it alongside the late, great Lynne Olson's Citizens of London and J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. Sir Peter Westmacott, Former British Ambassador to the United States

Jon Sopel tries to explain the madness of Trump's America with an elegant sense of stoic bewilderment. Brilliant Emma Kennedy, Actress, Writer and Broadcaster