Pete Buttigieg demonstrates how a breakdown of trust has been central to our nation's current predicament-and how our future depends on finding ways to restore confidence in the American project, and in each other.
'His campaign was historic for all America' Guardian
Trust will be our essential tool as we face unique challenges of the decades ahead.
In a century warped by terrorism, Trumpism, financial collapse, populism, systemic racism, Russian interference and a global pandemic, trust within and among nations has been squandered, sacrificed, abused, stolen, or never properly built in the first place.
In a piercing exploration of the soul of the American nation involving history, philosophy and memoir, former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg explores the strong relationship between prosperity and social trust. Our success, or failure, in confronting the greatest challenges of the decade - racial and economic justice, pandemic resilience, and climate action - will rest on whether we can effectively cultivate, deepen and repair the networks of trust that are now endangered, or for so many, have never even existed. This means trust in institutions, in each other, and in the democratic project itself.
About the Author
Pete Buttigieg, born in Indiana in 1982, is the former two-term mayor of South Bend and 2020
Democratic presidential candidate. A Rhodes scholar and US Navy veteran, Buttigieg, whose first
book, Shortest Way Home, became a New York Times best-seller, was educated at Harvard and Oxford. He and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, live in South Bend, Indiana.