The executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal chronicles the astonishing 40-year rise and decline of the conservative movement in America, sharing insights into the roles of such contributors as the Federalist Society, the NRA and Fox News. In 1980, President-Elect Ronald Reagan ushered in conservatism as the most powerful political force in America. His efforts to reshape the government with tax cuts, deregulation, increased military...

"From the prophetic author of the now-classic What's the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal, an eye-opening account of populism, the most important-and misunderstood-movement of our time. Rarely does a work of history contain startling implications for the present, but in The People, No Thomas Frank pulls off that explosive effect by showing us that everything we think we know about populism is wrong. Today "populism" is seen as a frightening...

"A new history of the American political tradition and the debates about democracy that have defined it"-- Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe-- but also complain that nothing seems to change. The urges to defend the country's foundations and to dismantle them coexist-- often withing the same people. Shenk offers a eye-opening examination of the American political tradition-- and the people...

"From Truman to Trump, the deep corruption of our political leaders unveiled. Many critiques of the Trump era contrast it with the latter half of the twentieth century, when the United States seemed governed more by statesmen than by special interests. Without denying the extraordinary vigor of President Trump's assault on traditional ethical and legal norms, Jonathan Marshall challenges the myth of a golden age of American democracy. Drawing on a...

"A huge swath of Americans see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them. It's no wonder they'd rather burn it all down. But the fire can be stopped by Americans who act now to protect their country and its democracy"--

"Americans have disabled the government's ability to solve even basic problems, making us vulnerable to the most dangerous demagogue ever to pretend to the White House. Kurt Andersen shows how the masterminds of the economic right rode an unprecedented wave of nostalgia by dressing up their harsh new rich-get-richer system in patriotic old-time drag, making it their mission to take over the government for their purposes alone and convincing the country...