Throwing the book

The curious muse: Trump has inspired 1,200 unique titles thus far. — AP

THERE may come a time when Donald Trump proclaims himself to be the saviour of the American publishing industry. After all, never before have the first four years of any US presidency witnessed so much verbiage.

The phenomenon itself is hardly novel. Americans tend to be fascinated by the ‘imperial presidency’ (‘imperialist’ might be a more appropriate adjective) and the concomitant status of their head of state/government as the most powerful person in the world and, to boot, the leader of the so-called ‘free world’. Hence journalists, historians and political scientists are habitually keen to describe and/or analyse presidencies as they are unfolding — or folding up: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All The President’s Men was published just weeks before Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign, in August 1974.