A timely, thoughtful consideration of liberal democracy and its legion of enemies.
A distinguished political scientist examines the poisoning of civic discourse.
Galston, a Brookings Institution fellow, writes that the three dark passions of his title “fuel today’s attacks on liberal democracy,” harnessed by demagogues—he means mostly Donald Trump, of course—to dismantle democratic rule. That exploitation at heart involves “pitting people against one another.” Whereas a good leader in a democracy aims to govern for all and to balance contending interests, a bad one will do whatever can be done to whip up resentments and especially fear—of the other, of the unknown—to accomplish the central goal of dominating the polity. Defenders of that liberal democracy, Galston argues, make a fundamental mistake in discounting the power of anger and fear: the passions represent reactions to actual events, whether disproportionate or not, and operate on the notion that somehow people have been wronged and shamed and need to take revenge, the strongest anger being “anger born of humiliation.” Liberal democracies, the author notes, can also be slow to respond to moving toward desired goals, which leads to frustration at gridlock, and the defenders also do ill to ignore what Galston considers to be prima facie: The culture wars are very real, even as liberals tend to insist that “economic issues are the real issues.” In this light, he says, Christian fundamentalists supported the morally questionable Trump precisely because they believed they were losing the culture wars, and they wanted “a fighter, not a preacher” to take up their cause, regardless of manifest character flaws. Against all this, Galston imagines political leaders who actually speak to issues with an eye to building popularly supported solutions; moreover, rather than reactively deflect, those leaders would build public trust through “speech that accepts responsibility.” In light of current realities, all that seems a pipe dream—but one well worth dreaming.
A timely, thoughtful consideration of liberal democracy and its legion of enemies.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780300282290
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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