The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralysed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance.
About the Author :
David Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Emeritus, at Oberlin College.
Andrew Gumbel is a British-born journalist, based in Los Angeles, who has won awards for his work as an investigative reporter, a political columnist, and a feature writer. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the author of Down for the Count and Won't Lose This Dream (both from The New Press). He is also the author of Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed, and Why It Still Matters.
Bakari Kitwana is a journalist and activist in the area of hip-hop and black youth political engagement.
William Becker is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
Review :
Praise for Democracy Unchained:
"Cogent. . . . Wide-ranging. . . . Penetrating analyses of the nation's ills."
—Kirkus Reviews
"This remarkable book is like speed dialing the smartest minds in America, and getting them to tackle the country's toughest problems. It's full of fresh and urgently needed ideas."
—Jane Mayer, chief Washington correspondent, The New Yorker
"This courageous book is a timely treatment of our crisis of democracy! The variety of powerful voices and cogency of analytical viewpoints are badly needed in these grim neo-fascist times!"
—Cornel West, Harvard University
"Where do we go from here? In Democracy Unchained some of the country's best minds tackle this most urgent of questions. The result is a must-read for anyone interested in—or worried about—the future of our Republic."
—Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer, The New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Sixth Extinction
"A peerless, one-stop compendium that explains with welcome clarity why American democracy is in such peril—and what we must do to repair and reinvent it before it is too late. Read this book, share it, and act on its authors' wise counsel. The stakes could not be higher."
—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
"This collection of essays by preeminent Americans from a wide array of backgrounds and professions may someday be recognized as the twenty-first-century equivalent of the Federalist Papers. Certainly the times are no less perilous than when Hamilton, Madison, and Jay set their pens to paper."
—Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle and Our Wild Calling
"Democracy Unchained is an extraordinary compilation of essays on the parlous state of democracy in our country. Irrespective of whether you may disagree with some essays, every voting citizen should make the effort to read them all as they will stimulate serious thinking and make us better stewards of our democracy."
—Theodore Roosevelt IV, managing director and chairman, Barclays Clean Tech Initiative
"The looming climate catastrophe requires that we disenthrall ourselves from the constructs and assumptions of the past. Democracy Unchained presents an urgent opportunity to think anew, and to engage Americans from every part of America."
—Tim Wirth, former U.S. senator from Colorado; president emeritus, United Nations Foundation
