The Dying Citizen Lib/E: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America

About the Book

A New York Times Bestseller The bestselling historian explains the decline and fall of the once cherished idea of American citizenship. "The Dying Citizen is essential reading for any American who cares about the fate of our nation." ―Mark R. Levin Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the "citizen" is historically rare--and was among America's most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship may soon vanish. In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective sense of self. And a top-heavy state has endangered personal liberty. The Dying Citizen is a clarion call to rebuild our collective national identity.

About the Author :
Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, most recently The Case for Trump. He lives in Selma, California. James Edward Thomas is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.

Review :
The Dying Citizen is essential reading for any American who cares about the fate of our nation.-- "Mark R. Levin"

"A wake-up call for our countrymen who want to preserve the American ideal for future generations."

-- "Representative Devin Nunes"

"Hanson weaves together history, philosophy, and contemporary headlines to diagnose our current woes and to remind them that the cure lies in what is best in them and in America."

-- "Senator Tom Cotton" "A powerful and carefully developed argument for preserving American citizenship."--American Thinker "As Victor Davis Hanson shows in his learned, powerful, and troubling new book, The Dying Citizen, the steady devolution of citizenship speaks volumes about where we are today and where we seem to be heading... Hanson lays out this grim diagnosis with his usual clarity and brilliance, moving easily from his deep specialized knowledge of the ancient Greek and Roman world through savvy observations about present-day politics and American society."--The New Criterion Citizenship brings all the enduring principles of democracy into the sphere of the individual. It honors the human need for a collective identity even as it makes room for the individual to pursue happiness. In this remarkably illuminating book, Victor Davis Hanson shows how so many contemporary problems--identity politics, the border crisis, bloated government, etc.--have only worsened for the lack of a vigorous and clarifying idea of citizenship. In this deeply democratic idea, Hanson points to a way beyond what ails us."
--Shelby Steele, author of Shame Hanson is well-positioned to describe the evolution of citizenship from ancient times through the modern era, and especially the assumptions about citizenship underlying America's constitutional order... Hanson presents, clearly and concisely, a case that critics will struggle to refute. His troubling argument has far-reaching implications. The Dying Citizen is a book that all Americans should read, then discuss with friends and neighbors.-- "Claremont Review of Books" In The Dying Citizen, Victor Davis Hanson shows once again why he is America's premier scholar, writer, and political observer. Drawing on his training as a classicist, and clearly informed by his deep personal experience living and farming in California's San Joaquin Valley, Hanson has written a tour de force on the history, rights, and responsibilities of modern citizenship, and the galaxy of forces that are undermining the concept of American citizenship today. Immensely enlightening but also deeply unsettling, The Dying Citizen is a wake-up call for our countrymen who want to preserve the American ideal for future generations.-- "Rep. Devin Nunes" Once again Victor Davis Hanson has written a masterly account of a great public affairs crisis. He has given a learned history of the concept and indispensability in a democracy of responsible citizenship; has perceptively chronicled how it has been undermined in the US; how Donald Trump in his sometimes frantic way tried to revive it, and of the tense but not unhopeful current prospects. This book is a concise masterpiece that all serious citizens should read."
--Conrad Black Politicians often speak to "my fellow citizens," implying a kind of common project among all citizens. In America, that project is our shared devotion to our founding principles. Victor Davis Hanson explains in The Dying Citizen, however, that this uniquely American concept of citizenship is imperiled--whether from ancient threats like economic stagnation, open borders, and racial discord, or modern ones like unelected bureaucrats, anti-Constitution progressives, and globalists. As only he can, Hanson weaves together history, philosophy, and contemporary headlines to diagnose our current woes and to remind them that the cure lies in what is best in them and in America.-- "Senator Tom Cotton" This is a book about an ongoing and threatening change of 'regime, ' which means a change not only in how we are governed but also in how we live. To understand such a thing requires perspective: Victor Hanson is deeply educated in the classics, where knowledge of regimes was first developed. It also requires a close observation of what is happening today, about which he writes insightfully and in profusion. In this book, Hanson demonstrates yet again his command across time and for our time. This book and he are a treasure."
--Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College