War on the American Republic: How Liberalism Became Despotism

by Kevin Slack Narrated by George Wesley Holland

Overview

Americans often use the words progressive, liberal, and radical interchangeably, without reference to their place in our nation's history. Each of the three movements rejected older republican principles of governance in favor of an administrative state. But there were substantial differences-each movement arose in criticism of what came before.



Following the 1960s, elites on both left and right turned against the industrial middle class to erect an oligarchy at home and advance globalization abroad. Each side claimed to serve the interests of disadvantaged or underrepresented groups. Radicals ensconced themselves in bureaucracy and academia to fulfill their vision of social justice for women and minorities, while neoliberal elites promoted monopoly finance, open borders, and job outsourcing. The administrative state had become a global American empire, but the neoliberals' economic and military failures precipitated a crisis of legitimacy. In the "great awokening" that began under Barack Obama, neoliberal elites, including establishment conservatives, broke with the populist base of the Republican Party, embraced identity politics, and used Covid-19 and myths of insurrection to strip away the rights of Americans. Today, an incompetent kleptocracy is draining the wealthiest and most powerful people in history, thus eroding the foundations of its own empire.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Kevin Slack’s War on the American Republic is outstanding. It blends strong moral seriousness with impressive scholarly analysis. Slack both explains and responds to the relentless attack on the manly, Christian republicanism of the older America by successive waves of liberalism, each one more radical than the last. This book is the best available panoptic view of the transformations in America’s moral-political orientation over the course of its history.”

—Thomas G. West, professor at Hillsdale College, author of The Political Theory of the American Founding

“This is a thoughtful and interesting book, to be read by scholars and students alike, that corrects the record of generations of popularized and fake concepts describing how America got to its rotten state, predicts where things may go from here, and shows how to correct our trajectory. This learned book should be read by people on both left and right.”

—Arthur Milikh, executive director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life

 “Finally, a comprehensive treatment of the American left. A thoughtful, immensely well-researched, and spirited intellectual history of American decline.”

—David Azerrad, assistant professor at Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C. 

 “This is a powerful book, exhaustive without being exhausting. Kevin Slack offers a bold new history of American society and politics, ranging from the founding all the way to our current despotic kleptocracy and beyond.  If you want clarity about what lies ahead, understanding the past is essential, and there is no better place to start than this book.”

—Charles Haywood, editor of The Worthy House

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194383719
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	04/22/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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