MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Busting the myth of ‘manifest destiny’
CARLOS MARTINEZ recommends a book which ruthlessly exposes the concept of US exceptionalism
Founding-fathers fantasy: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A Brownscombe
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror
by Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong
(Skyhorse, £19.99)
THIS important work of Marxist sociology and history relentlessly unpicks the foundational myths of the United States which, with their accompanying ideology of exceptionalism and innocence, act as a “cultural drug” that serves to pacify and deceive the masses.
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ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year