Rodale

Perhaps no one is better equipped to analyze the current state of our democracy than legendary reporter William Greider. He has covered politics from the nation’s capital for four decades—for the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and most recently The Nation—and has earned a reputation as one of our most incisive, uncompromising truth-tellers and social critics.

In his bestseller Who Will Tell the People, Greider opened the American public’s eyes to the hidden relationships that link politicians with corporations and the wealthy, often subverting the needs of ordinary citizens. Now, in his first book on our democracy in years, Greider examines the impact of current American policy, revealing how our obsession with remaining “Number One” in the world has caused us to stray from the democratic values and ideals upon which our country was founded.

By examining the economic and political forces that have brought us to where we are today—financial crisis, deepening indebtedness to other nations, the loss of productive assets and jobs, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, and more—Greider offers, in a powerful and conversational tone, clarity on the consequences and long-term implications of our national predicament. He then offers optimism that our young country can put aside its adolescent impulses and grow up so that we can “come home” to what is really important—a return to our nation’s core values and the freedom to create a better, more fulfilling society.

WILLIAM GREIDER is the best-selling author of five previous books, including One World, Ready or Not; Who Will Tell the People; and Secrets of the Temple. He has written for the Washington Post and Rolling Stone and has been an on-air correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS. Currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C.