Past Fiction Shapes Our Present

Guest Post by Leland Davidson

You are not a politician, but self-made through hard work. You are not political and don’t fancy politics and prefer a life of content over luxury. Then the president of the United States himself has asked you to become the head of a government subcommittee, which is supposed to help the nation’s safety and better the country that you live in.

However, through digging and fact-finding, you discover this committee is sponsored by a giant and powerful company that is buying off politicians and absorbing other markets such as the media and weapon manufacturing. Trevayne was written in 1973 by Robert Ludlum on the heels of the Watergate scandal. But in a way, this book is more relevant in our modern-day situation involving the privatization of the United States of America. Companies and powerful families such as Koch and DeVos. Add on corporations like Facebook, Amazon, and Raytheon, which have since majorly impacted our democracy, and we see a cautionary tale in this book written nearly 50 years ago.

In this book Andrew Trevayne has a choice to stop this corporation from completely taking over the country and influencing all its decisions, or assimilate with it, thus shaping the future United States in the same manner we are seeing today. Trevayne can be seen as a fictional and nonfictional example as the United States is more of a business and money opportunity for the rich than for the working class who truly shape the nation.

Trevayne by Robert Ludlum. Delacorte Press, 1973.

Reviewer bio: Leland Davidson, a native of East Tennessee, holds an M.A. in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence from Heller School at Brandeis University, 2020.

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