The Counterrevolution
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Before we open the book at all: where were you reading this, and what did you do to make yourself comfortable while you did it? Some books need a blanket.
Was there a page where you had to put the book down for a minute, not out of anger, but just to breathe? Tell us about that moment without judging yourself for it.
Hanson keeps reaching back to older history to explain very recent events. Did that long view soothe you at all, the sense that none of this is unprecedented, or did it not land that way for you?
The book is built around the idea that being out of power changes people. Have you ever had your own stretch in the wilderness, a job loss, an illness, a season where you were sidelined, and did you come back different?
Who in your life came to mind while you were reading, a relative, an old friend, someone you have stopped talking politics with? What would you want to say to them about this book if it could be said kindly?
Hanson writes with real heat about things he loves and fears losing. Setting aside whether you share his conclusions, what did his sense of loss remind you of in your own life?
Reading a writer you agree with feels warm, and reading one you do not feels like weather. Which was this for you, and did that feeling shift anywhere in the middle of the book?
By the last pages Hanson has made his case about where things are headed. Without naming his conclusion out loud for anyone still reading, did the book leave you steadier or more unsettled, and what do you personally do with that feeling when you close the cover?