NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An urgent argument that America and other democracies are in peril because they have lost the will to defend the values and institutions that sustain freedom and prosperity. Now updated with a new preface
"Epic and debate-shifting."--David Brooks, New York Times
- The government belongs to us; we do not belong to it.
- The individual is sovereign. We are all captains of our own souls, not bound by the circumstances of our birth.
- The fruits of our labors belong to us. In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices. As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation, and privilege, the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right. For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals and habits of the heart that led us out of the bloody muck of the past--or back to the muck we will go.