Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

Description

"What makes Trump immune is that he is not a president within the context of a healthy Republican government. He is a cult leader of a movement that has taken over a political party - and he specifically campaigned on a platform of one-man rule. This fact permeates "Can It Happen Here . . . which concludes, if you read between the lines, that "it" already has." - New York Times Book Review From New York Times bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein, a compelling collection of essays by the brightest minds in America on authoritarianism. With the election of Donald J. Trump, many people on both the left and right feared that America's 240-year-old grand experiment in democracy was coming to an end, and that Sinclair Lewis' satirical novel, It Can't Happen Here, written during the dark days of the 1930s, could finally be coming true. Is the democratic freedom that the United States symbolizes really secure Can authoritarianism happen in America Acclaimed legal scholar, Harvard Professor, and New York Times bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein queried a number of the nation's leading thinkers. In this thought-provoking collection of essays, these distinguished thinkers and theorists explore the lessons of history, how democracies crumble, how propaganda works, and the role of the media, courts, elections, and "fake news" in the modern political landscape-and what the future of the United States may hold. Contributors include: Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School Eric Posner, law professor at the University of Chicago Law School Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University Timur Kuran, economics and political science professor at Duke University Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard Law School Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business Jack Goldsmith, Professor at Harvard Law School, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and co-founder of Lawfare Stephen Holmes, Professor of Law at New York University Jon Elster, Professor of the Social Sciences at Columbia University Thomas Ginsburg, Professor of International Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University Duncan Watts, sociologist and principal researcher at Microsoft Research Geoffrey R. Stone, University of Chicago Law school professor and noted First Amendment scholar

Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, where he is founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. A columnist for Bloomberg View, a frequent witness before Congress, and an informal adviser to many public officials in national, state, and local governments, he has served as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, as a member of the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, and as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice. His many books include the bestseller Nudge (with Richard H. Thaler), Simpler: The Future of Government, and Republic.com.

"[Trump] is a cult leader of a movement that has taken over a political party - and he specifically campaigned on a platform of one-man rule. This fact permeates Can It Happen Here? . . . which concludes, if you read between the lines, that "it" already has." - New York Times Book Review "Sunstein gathers together 17 provocative, topical essays...[that] rouse the reader to think carefully and deeply about the prospects for American authoritarianism." - Publishers Weekly "Sunstein, for his part, takes a clear-eyed view of the threats to democratic structures... Can it Happen Here? seeks to investigate the questions raised by Lewis in the modern context" - The Progressive "Several of the contributors - mainly law professors, with some diplomats, economists and psychologists tossed in - agree that American politics is susceptible to creeping authoritarianism and provide the intellectual underpinning." - Washington Post "These essays are serious and thought-provoking." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette "A renowned legal scholar assembles a dream team of other legal authorities and cultural and political analysists to ponder the title, substance, and current relevance of It Can't Happen Here...Cautionary pieces well-informed by history, legal theory, and patriotism, all bubbling in a cauldron of anxiety." - Kirkus "Through these carefully sourced essays, readers will gain a framework in which to evaluate the hyperbolic rhetoric disseminated on so many platforms. And the topics covered here continue to ripple in the daily news out of Washington." - Booklist