American Doctrines

Over the past generation, the Democratic and Republican parties have each become nationally coordinated political teams. American political institutions, on the other hand, remain highly decentralized. Laboratories against Democracy shows how national political conflicts are increasingly flowing through the subnational institutions of state politics—with profound consequences for public policy and American democracy.

Over the course of the past few decades, Allen West has had many titles bestowed on him, among them Lt. Colonel, U.S. Representative, "Dad", and Scourge of the Far Left. He rose from humble beginnings in Atlanta where his father instilled in him a code of conduct that would inform his life ever after. Throughout his years leading troops, raising a loving family, serving as Congressman in Florida's 22nd district, and emerging as one of the most authentic voices in conservative politics, West has never compromised the core values on which he was raise.

Editor and investigative reporter Jefferson Morley has been widely published in national periodicals and is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction work Our Man in Mexico. An eye-opening look at Washington’s first race riot, Snow-Storm in August also offers revealing profiles of Arthur Bowen, the slave blamed for the riot, and “Star Spangled Banner” lyricist Francis Scott Key, a defender of slavery who sought capital punishment for Bowen.

In this brilliant exploration of American history and contemporary conservative politics, foreign policy expert John Hulsman draws on his years at the heart of Washington to present a compelling new vision of conservative realism. In our current Age of Insecurity, Hulsman suggests, there has never been a bigger need for the re-ascendance of realist principles in conservative circles. By drawing on U.S. history to illustrate realist precepts at the heart of the American story, The Last Best Hope provides a practical, realist foreign policy for a new age of American politics.

Contrary to popular discourse warning about the dangers of populism, Critchlow argues that grassroots activism is essential to party renewal within a democratic system. In Defense of Populism examines movements that influenced Republican, Democratic, and third-party politics - from the Progressives and their influence on Teddy Roosevelt, to New Dealers and FDR, to the civil rights, feminist, and environmental movements and their impact on the Democratic Party, to the Reagan Revolution and the Tea Party.

From the first moments of his presidency, Donald J. Trump put US economic revival at the top of his agenda. Cutting red tape and slashing business tax rates made companies eager to locate in America again. A surge in corporate investment led to record numbers of US job openings. But there was also another force at work at the start of the Trump era, and it’s impossible to provide a fair accounting of Trump’s governance without noting the unique obstacles he’s faced.

It’s become fashionable among the liberal elite to downplay, deride, and even deny America’s greatness. The political correctness police insist that America is hated around the world for being too big, too powerful, too rich, too successful, too loud, too intrusive. And besides, it’s not nice to brag....

In his controversial New York Times best seller, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, Dinesh D’Souza answered the question on everyone’s mind: why is President Obama hell-bent on seeing America fail? The reason, D’Souza explained, is Obama’s fervent anticolonial ideology. Here, in his blockbuster follow-up, Obama’s America, D’Souza shows how President Obama is applying his anticolonial ideology to unmake America and turn it into a country our founders would hardly recognize.

American Imperialism is a short work in which Schurz denounced the Spanish-American war and the United States’ acquisition of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. He considered the war as a battle of conquest which violated the intent and principles of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Schurz believed that imperialism should remain the province of despotic European governments. Together with the other leaders of the American Anti-Imperialist League, such as Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain, Schurz insisted that imperialism was incompatible with democracy.

Gun sellers sell more than just guns. They also sell politics. Merchants of the Right sheds light on the unparalleled surge in gun purchasing during one of the most dire moments in American history, revealing how conservative political culture was galvanized amid a once-in-a-century pandemic, racial unrest, and a U.S. presidential election that rocked the foundations of American democracy. Drawing on a wealth of in-depth interviews with gun sellers across the United States, Jennifer Carlson takes listeners to the front lines of the culture war over gun rights.

From his bestselling first novel, The Naked and the Dead, to his last work, American democracy was a lifelong project for Norman Mailer. It was his grand theme. Nearly all of his books touched on the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses, the grace (to use his word) and fragility of the American experiment as well as the threats to it. A Mysterious Country is a carefully selected collection of Mailer’s most incisive—and sometimes remarkably prophetic—commentary on American democracy and what must be done to safeguard it.

Much of the attention paid to Trump's rise to power has focused on his corrosive personality and divisive style of governing. But he alone is not the problem. The vulnerability is much broader and deeper. The ascendance of Trump is the culmination of nearly 250 years of political reforms that gradually ceded party nominations to small cliques of ideologically motivated party activists, interest groups, and donors. Author Lawrence Jacobs provides a highly engaging history of political reforms since the late-eighteenth century that over time dangerously weakened democracy.

Americans today have “freedom” to be fleeced, groped, injected, harassed, surveilled, vilified, disarmed, beaten, detained, and maybe shot by federal agents. From hapless homeowners hit by SWAT raids to pandemic lockdowns pointlessly paralyzing lives, government agencies have become far more intrusive and abusive. There is no escape from tinhorn dictators seizing guns, sabotaging schooling, or wrecking housing markets.

By tracing the history of Winthrop’s speech, its changing status through time, and its use in modern politics, Van Engen asks us to reevaluate our national narratives. He tells the story of curators, librarians, collectors, archivists, antiquarians, and other often anonymous figures who emphasized the role of the Pilgrims and Puritans in American history, paving the way for the saving and sanctifying of a single sermon and its eventual transformation into an American tale.

We the Fallen People presents a close look at the ideas of human nature to be found in the history of American democratic thought. McKenzie, following C. S. Lewis, claims there are only two reasons to believe in majority rule: because we have confidence in human nature - or because we don't. The Founders subscribed to the biblical principle that humans are fallen and their virtue is always doubtful, and they wrote the US Constitution to frame a republic intended to handle our weaknesses.

The noise from both Washington and the media is deafening, the deeds of our lawmakers alarming. America needs a break from the posturing and the politicking. We need information: how we got here and where we are headed. Catherine Crier, one of the most respected figures in television journalism, presents an incisive, unbiased analysis of America's political crisis---delivering a message we cannot afford to ignore.America must move beyond political parties to invest in our nation's future. Not just with money, but with vision, wisdom, and reason.

Beginning with a careful analysis of the 2012 election - including a look at the challenge the GOP had in reaching a majority of voters and the prevalence of identity politics - Ryan examines the state of the Republican party and dissects its challenges the country to certain ruin. Culminating in a plan for the future, The Way Forward argues that the Republican Party is and must remain a conservative party, emphasizing going forward.

The author of America's Hidden Success launches a daring and appealing political and economic plan to restore American unity and prosperity. Today, bitter partisanship has sunk our politics into unending stalemate, millions of Americans are struggling to get ahead financially, and cynicism about the effectiveness and fairness of our political processes grows continually deeper. The country needs practical, principled, and unifying solutions, rather than continued finger-pointing across the aisle.

Underdogma is a new "idea book" that shows how our love/hate relationship with power - and those who have power - shape how we look at the world. For many people, those who have less power (underdogs) can do no wrong, even when we do wrong, and those who have more power can do no right - even when they do right. Michael Prell gave this belief system a name - Underdogma - and he reveals how Underdogma is affecting your life right now - and how it threatens America's superpower status.

The Supreme Court has never simply evaluated laws and arguments in light of permanent and immutable constitutional meanings, and social, moral, and yes, political ideas have always played into Supreme Court justices' impressions of how they think a case should be decided. Mark Tushnet traces the ways constitutional thought has evolved from the liberalism of the New Deal and Great Society to the Reagan conservatism that has been dominant since the 1980s.