American Caesar - by Bradley B Onishi (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A chilling and urgently needed exposé on the forces pushing American politics and religion toward a post-constitutional autocracy

From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural pulpits, from Catholic monasteries to Beltway think tanks and Project 2025, a convergence is underway. Reactionary Catholics dream of a new Christendom. Protestant pastors invoke divine right over democratic rule. Tech billionaires, led by the likes of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, argue that freedom and democracy are incompatible. Their solution? A singular ruler to bring "order" out of what they see as liberal chaos.

With a theologian's sensibility, a journalist's touch, and a historian's eye for how movements evolve and adapt, Dr. Bradley B. Onishi traces the strange alliance between spiritual warfare and Silicon Valley libertarianism. At the center of it all is the desire for an unbound executive--one man, beyond checks, beyond balance, beyond democracy. This isn't nostalgia for the 1950s. It's an organized attempt to abandon the American experiment altogether. A former insider turned academic expert, Onishi brings unmatched depth to this investigation--tracing his own path from evangelical pastor to co-host of Straight White American Jesus, the nation's leading religion and politics podcast.

As the 2024 election fades into history and a new political order takes shape, American Caesar is not just a warning. It's a map of how we got here--and a call to act before the Republic as we know it becomes just another chapter in a forgotten history book.

Review Quotes

"From church pews to Silicon Valley, Bradley Onishi takes the reader on an essential journey through the seemingly disparate threads of the radical right, a movement exploiting its vast financial and information resources to manipulate Americans into believing their freedoms would be better served by a monarch than by the American experiment that explicitly rejected one. With vivid portraits of a terrifying and downright weird cast of characters, American Caesar deftly unpacks a extremist insurgency taking aim at the heart of American democracy."
--Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind

"Bradley Onishi's American Caesar is a timely and piercing interrogation of the nationalist leveraging of Christian identity to betray the foundations of the American experiment, dismantle the bulwarks of liberal democracy, and establish a new American monarchy in its place. Onishi explains not just the history of the movement and the thirst for power that fuels the movement, but also the anxieties that facilitate its evangelism and the perspectives that will be critical to thwarting its goals and restoring American liberties. This will be a critical volley in our constitutional republic's struggle for survival."
--Dan McClellan, New York Times bestselling author of The Bible Says So

"Essential reading for anyone who does not yet appreciate the threat of extreme Christian nationalism--and just as vital for those who already do. Because Dr. Bradley Onishi is more than a brilliant theologian: his religious fluency, political insights, and cogent writing allow him to unpack the complexity of this grave threat--its theological roots, political ambitions, and cultural reach--with clarity and force."
--Congressman Jared Huffman (Co-Founder, Congressional Freethought Caucus)

"Every lover of American democracy must read this book to understand the threat our nation faces. We overthrew our king 250 years ago, Onishi exposes how Big Tech and Christian Nationalism are uniting to bring a monarchy back and unravel American democracy. Brilliant, timely, and terrifying."
--Andrew L. Seidel author of The Founding Myth and American Crusade

"Bradley Onishi has issued an alarming and urgent warning for the future of democracy. American Caesar reveals how a movement of white Christian nationalists, Silicon Valley plutocrats, postliberal philosophers, and reactionary monarchist theologians are hiding in plain sight with a carefully orchestrated plan to disassemble democratic freedoms in favor of a theocratic state ruled by a Christian prince. With the skills of a public intellectual and a fearless investigator, Onishi traces the theological, political and cultural undercurrents that converge in the call for a modern Caesar who would return us to a dark, medieval past where strong men ruled like veritable Leviathans. With the credibility of an insider, Onishi names the imminent danger and calls concerned citizens to account. This is required reading for anyone who believes freedom and justice are incompatible with authoritarian rule and theocratic visions for the future of America and the world."
--Walter Earl Fluker, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Ethical Leadership, Boston University

About the Author

Dr. Bradley B. Onishi is the award-winning author of Preparing for War. He founded the Straight White American Jesus podcast, Axis Mundi Media, and the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement. Onishi is a Research Associate at the U.C. Berkeley Center for Religion, an Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion board member, and co-chair of the Secularism and Secularity unit at the American Academy of Religion. He often writes for outlets like Rolling Stone, Politico, and the New York Times.