To say it’s been a tumultuous few weeks in American politics might be the understatement of the year. 

The kidnapping of the leader of another sovereign nation, threats to annex the territory of a fellow Nato member, an outspoken defence of the killing of a US citizen by a federal agent and that’s just this month. 

These sorts of actions have been labelled “unprecedented” by many but is the Trump Presidency something new or indicative of a side of America that we in Europe have failed to notice but which has always been there?

Broadcaster Edward Stourton is the author of a new book called Made in America: the Dark History that Led to Donald Trump, in which he puts forward the argument that far from being a modern anomaly, much of the policy of the current administration is just a continuation of broad historical patterns in American history.