After a year beset by a pandemic, civil unrest, and political turmoil, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol began 2021 with the first major attack on American soil since the falling of the twin towers some 20 years before. What are the sources of US political dissolution and division and the resulting implications for Australia? What is the connection between the lives of individual Americans and the dysfunction that characterises Washington? What explains the seismic shifts in the politics and culture in places as diverse as Connecticut, West Virginia and Chicago?

To discuss what led to this moment and what can be done about it, the United States Studies Centre hosted a discussion with Evan Osnos, National Book Award and Pulitzer prize-winning author of Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury in conversation with USSC Non-Resident Senior Fellow Dr Charles Edel.