Four Threats

The Recurring Crises of American Democracy

By: Suzanne Mettler, Robert C. Lieberman

Narrated by: Andrea Gallo

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

An urgent, historically grounded take on the four major factors that undermine American democracy, and what we can do to address them.

While many Americans despair of the current state of US politics, most assume that our system of government and democracy itself are invulnerable to decay. Yet when we examine the past, we find that to the contrary, the United States has undergone repeated crises of democracy, from the earliest days of the republic to the present.

In The Four Threats, Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman explore five moments in history when democracy in the US was under siege: the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Depression, and Watergate. These episodes risked profound - even fatal - damage to the American democratic experiment. From this history, four distinct characteristics of disruption emerge. Political polarization, racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power - alone or in combination - have threatened the survival of the republic, but it has survived, so far. What is unique, and alarming, about the present moment in American politics is that all four conditions exist.

This convergence marks the contemporary era as a grave moment for democracy. But history provides a valuable repository from which we can draw lessons about how democracy was eventually strengthened - or weakened - in the past. By revisiting how earlier generations of Americans faced threats to the principles enshrined in the Constitution, we can see the promise and the peril that have led us to today and chart a path toward repairing our civic fabric and renewing democracy.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

"Four Threats helps us see that the principal forces challenging our democracy today - polarization, conflict over who is considered American, economic inequality, and presidential abuse of power - are not new. And, in turn, we gain powerful insights into our current predicament - and how we might overcome it. We recommend this book to all citizens concerned about the fate of American democracy." (Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, best-selling authors of How Democracies Die)

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Robert C. Lieberman (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

A Must Read

Our American Democracy needs the support of All Americans. This is a must read for everyone who believes in Democracy and wants it to continue.

Very informative

This book is a great history lesson and shows us what's going around in our society and how we can change it. and we are in big trouble so I would highly advise everyone to read this book and take heed.

What could be more balanced

I absolutely agree with the author on the four pillars of democracy. I also absolutely agree with the premise that when more than two of these pillars are threatened, democracy itself may backslide. However, I do not agree with the author in that only one party has participated in denigrating each of the four pillars of the listed democracy. For me, that made this book a little bit hard to digest as it is not just one party who has participated in the downgrading of our great nation