Talking Books with Larry Alex Taunton Author of Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days @larrytaunton #Interview

Larry Alex Taunton is an American author, columnist, and cultural commentator. A frequent television and radio guest, he has appeared on CNN, CNN International, Fox News, Al Jazeera America, and BBC. You can find his columns on issues of faith and culture in The Atlantic, USA Today, CNN.com, and The Blaze. Taunton has been quoted by Rush Limbaugh, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, TIME, Vanity Fair, and NPR, among others. He is the author of “The Grace Effect” and “The Faith of Christopher Hitchens.”

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Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning? When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

As a writer who travels a lot, I see a lot: extremes of wealth and poverty; brutal regimes and those that seem impotent to maintain a rule of law; persecuted minorities and monocultures; feted miserable masses and the happy poor—all of this and more.
As the debate over America broke forth into our streets with the defeat of Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the inauguration of Republican Donald Trump in 2016, it occurred to me that most Americans have never been abroad. Indeed, 64 percent have never been to another country. So, when The New York Times declares as they did in 2019 headline, “Please Stop Telling Me America Is Great,” how is one to judge the truth of such a statement?
My book Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days: Discovering What Makes America Great and Why We Must Fight to Save It was my answer to this problem. Don’t have a passport? Can’t get time off? Lack the resources to travel around the world? I’ll do it for you! My book takes the reader on a virtual global expedition, of sorts, touring them through those countries with which America is most often compared and not just a few others.

Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

Post Hill Press. Post Hill reached out to me.

Is there anything that surprised you about getting your first book published?

This is my third book. At this point in my career, there are few things that surprise me in publishing. Like other authors, the release of my book was delayed by the pandemic.

Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?

I think the cover is critical as most do judge a book by its cover. When browsing a bookstore shelf, the cover along with the catchiness of the title determine whether you pick up that book and thumb its pages. And that, in turn, determines whether you buy it.

How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

Each book has its own difficulties. The biggest hurdle in this case was the extensive global travel it required. I literally went around the world—three times—to write this book. That was a massive commitment of resources and time. It also required careful planning, a willingness to assume potentially life-threatening risks, and the discipline to learn about issues with which I was previously unfamiliar.

What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

I have three books currently in my mind: a book on the problem of suffering as I have known a great deal of it; a book about Karl Marx’s life in London; and a novel.

What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

That America and Americans are popular around the world and that the United States remains the Promised Land for most of those who wish to emigrate.
As a corollary, President Trump is hated around the world among the champagne-sipping crowd. This did not surprise me. The media never tires of reminding us of this fact. What did surprise me, however, is that he is loved, respected, or both by blue collar types in every country I visited. To my knowledge, this fact has received no media coverage.

Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

I want readers, Americans mostly, to understand the great blessings bequeathed to us at great sacrifice by our forebears and how we risk losing it all with a cultural temper-tantrum that is tilting toward national suicide.

Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?

Buy the book!

The belief in “American Exceptionalism” is under attack, declares Larry Alex Taunton, an award-winning author, columnist, and cultural commentator. “A battle rages for the heart and soul of America.”

For Taunton, the question comes down to: Is there a better place to live than America?

To explore the idea of “national greatness,” Taunton went on a global odyssey, visiting some 26 countries. He records his discoveries in his new book, AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS: DISCOVERING WHAT MAKES AMERICA GREAT AND WHY WE MUST FIGHT TO SAVE IT.

If all of this sounds like a slog over some serious philosophic and political terrain, it is, but Taunton’s wry humor leavens the loaf.

In a chapter on Sweden, for example, the author hears, on a boat tour of Stockholm, a litany of Swedish accomplishments from his guides: “America? We discovered that. Skype? We invented it. The flat screen? You’re welcome. IKEA? You guessed it.”

Taunton’s mix of socio-political observations and cheeky wit in AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS opens the book up to a large and diverse group of readers.

The online publication The Federalist says of Taunton’s work: “The social elites want evangelicals to be as dumb as they suspect they are. But when a person comes along who proves that tale false, which Taunton clearly does…they simply don’t know what to do.”

In advance praise for AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS, Paul Reid, co-author with William Manchester, of THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL: DEFENDER OF THE REALM, 1940-1965 observes:

Larry Taunton—historian, columnist, and a man of abiding Christian faith—traveled (often at great risk to himself) to twenty-six nations in order to hold a mirror up to the United States of America and ask: Is America Good and is America Great? Mark Twain did much the same more than a century ago. Twain’s and Taunton’s conclusions are identical: There is no place—literally No Place—like home. “Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days is fabulous.” It’s going on my shelf next to “The Innocents Abroad.”

AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS is a book for all seasons.

“America—the freest, most tolerant and inclusive nation on earth—is under siege by radicals who make no effort to conceal their determination to destroy it. Larry Alex Taunton has provided patriotic Americans with a powerful weapon to defeat our enemies. Buy this book to arm yourself for the defense of your freedoms. Buy a second copy for a friend.”

— David Horowitz, author of Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America

“To truly understand how and why America is exceptional you could travel to country after country and see for yourself. You might even want to write a brilliant book about it! But lucky for you my friend, Larry Taunton has done all the traveling for you—think of the money you’ve saved!—and has written that brilliant book, making the case so clear that you owe it to yourself to grab a copy and read it! Please do!”

— Eric Metaxas, host of The Eric Metaxas Show; author of Bonhoeffer and If You Can Keep It

“The problem with being an American is that familiarity too often breeds contempt because we see our faults up close and take our virtues and blessings for granted. Larry Alex Taunton has provided a cure by lifting us up out of America, and taking us on a long and insightful tour of the world to see how other places actually stack up. Take the tour with him, and gain some very much needed perspective. You may find—as he did—there’s no place like home.”

— Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D., author of 10 Books That Screwed Up the World

“Larry Taunton—historian, columnist, and a man of abiding Christian faith—traveled (often at great risk to himself) to twenty-seven nations in order to hold a mirror up to the United States of America and ask: Is America Good and is America Great? Mark Twain did much the same more than a century ago. Twain’s and Taunton’s conclusions are identical: There is no place—literally No Place—like home. Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days is fabulous. It’s going on my shelf next to The Innocents Abroad.”

— Paul Reid, co-author with William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965