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James聽Shapiro has made a career of writing books about Shakespeare, including 鈥淐ontested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?鈥� (2011) and the prize-winning 鈥淭he Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606鈥� (2015), which were slanted toward the academician. In his latest book, 鈥淪hakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future,鈥澛爃e concentrates on eight 鈥渄efining moments鈥� of social or political conflict in America鈥檚 history and focuses on specific plays.

The narrative flows like a novel with many plot lines, and you don鈥檛聽need to be a Shakespeare scholar or a historian to enjoy this well-researched book.听

In his introduction, Shapiro, who teaches at Columbia University, writes that it was the election of Donald Trump as president that led him to write the book.听The author wrestles with the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and he even visits red states in the South, to talk with audiences about Shakespeare and 鈥済rapple with what, from inside my blue state bubble, I had failed to understand about where the country was heading.鈥� He succeeds, however, in presenting an even-handed account of Shakespeare and American politics, though his observations, comments, and conclusions convey an unmistakably liberal viewpoint.听

Throughout American history, politicians of varying stripes have claimed Shakespeare as their own, and cited his words for their own purposes.听

In the late 18th century, Hamlet鈥檚 鈥淭o be, or not to be鈥� speech was 鈥渁ppropriated both by defenders of British rule and by those seeking to overthrow it.鈥� Later, in 1865, an editorial in the Texas Republican claimed that John Wilkes Booth, like Caesar鈥檚 assassin Brutus, slew Lincoln 鈥渁s a tyrant, and the enemy of his country.鈥�

Shapiro draws clear lines between Shakespeare鈥檚 plays and American events and attitudes, whether he鈥檚 discussing the nationalism behind the concept of Manifest Destiny in 1845 or immigration restrictions in the early 20th century. The themes in Shakespeare鈥檚 plays provide uncanny comparisons with the events and rhetoric of different eras.听聽

He also discusses the importance of theater performances in shaping public views, and even inciting riots. In 1849, for example, 10,000 people rioted in New York鈥檚 Astor Place, ostensibly over competing productions of 鈥淢acBeth,鈥� one led by a British actor and the other by an American. The underlying causes of the protests, Shapiro writes, were anti-British sentiment and fear and anger over immigration. There was also an element of class warfare: the American actor, Edwin Forrest, was popular with young, white, working-class men, while the other performer, British actor William Charles Macready, was supported by bankers and the cultural elite.听

鈥淭heaters were imagined as more contentious versions of town hall meetings, democratic spaces where all could speak their minds; to challenge these unspoken rules was un-American and a provocation.鈥�

Certain stagings of Shakespeare can be viewed as a political act. Shapiro discusses the 2017 production of 鈥淛ulius Caesar鈥� in New York鈥檚 Central Park, which was interrupted briefly one night by two Trump supporters, who objected聽when the character of Caesar (dressed to look like President Trump) was stabbed onstage.听Shapiro reminds us that there has always been a 鈥渢ug-of-war over Shakespeare in America,鈥� and that the protest over the scene in Central Park suggests聽鈥渢hat this rope is now frayed. When one side no longer sees value in staging his plays, only a threat, things can unravel quickly.鈥�

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