"In a collection of essays, the venerated television journalist celebrates our shared values, reminds us of what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like."--

In 1831, the then twenty-seven year old Alexis de Tocqueville, was sent with Gustave de Beaumont to America by the French Government to study and make a report on the American prison system. Over a period of nine months the two traveled all over America making notes not only on the prison systems but on all aspects of American society and government. From these notes, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America", an exhaustive analysis of the successes...

Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy is perhaps the most important and influential book on the subject ever written. This volume is the result of an effort to weld into a readable form the bulk of almost forty years' thought, observation and research on the subject of socialism. The problem of democracy forced its way into the place it now occupies in this volume because it proved impossible to state my views on the relation between the...

"From hatemongering tactics in the run-up to the 2016 presidential race, to the increasing number of mass shootings, to excessive police violence, evidence that America is at war with itself is everywhere around us. The question is not whether or not it's happening, but how to understand what's driving the crisis and how to prevent conditions from getting worse. In this insightful book, Henry A. Giroux offers a far-reaching critique of the economic...

"A brilliant exploration of freedom-what it is, how it's been misunderstood, and why it's our only chance for survival-by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Tyranny"-- Timothy Snyder has been called "the leading interpreter of our dark times." As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge toward...

"Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions,...

It examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana, a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide, to follow a local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

An introduction to politics and elections explains how and where democracy began and how it has evolved throughout history.