Rebellion - by Robert Kagan

Book Synopsis

Could the 2024 election have been the last free election held in a unified America?

"A dire warning of the right's drift towards authoritarianism." --Financial Times

Published in the run-up to Donald Trump's victory, Rebellion sounded a chilling and clear-eyed warning about the threats posed to American democracy by the increasingly radicalized Republican Party. With the Trump administration in place, and attempting a systematic dismantling of the traditionally liberal principles on which America was founded, Robert Kagan's lessons and insights have become only more urgent.

Kagan dives deeper than the op-eds and think pieces to explore the historical forces that brought us to a second Trump term--in particular the long history of opposition to liberalism, and to government, that has shaped America's character from the time of the Revolution to today. Trump's unique capacity to tap into that tradition of dissent and circumvent the American system has brought us to the edge of dissolution--not for the first time in our history but possibly the last.

Rebellion is an elegant and deeply informed synthesis of history, contemporary politics, and ideas that sheds light on this crucial moment.

Review Quotes

"An alarming but useful perspective on antiliberalism....[A] timely, well-informed analysis....Kagan cogently examines the bright long-term prospects for the Founders' concept of liberalism, especially with the nation's rapidly changing demographics--if Trump does not win the election....A powerful, much-needed political and social analysis that all lovers of democracy should read."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"Kagan details, mordantly, the anti-liberalism that emerged during and after the Civil War, a strain that, just as much as today's version, insisted on a 'Christian commonwealth' founded essentially on wounded white working-class pride." --Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

"A concise but thorough tour through the influence of American liberalism's malign twin . . . Kagan manages to diagnose both the acute and chronic nature of our present crisis." --Alan Elrod, Liberal Currents

"A brilliant analyst and polemicist, Kagan argues that the 2024 presidential election could be the last free election held in a unified United States. He justifies this dire warning with a detailed account of the right's drift towards authoritarianism--and traces the historical roots of Donald Trump's appeal to a long tradition of anti-liberal thought in the US." --Gideon Rachman and Frederick Studemann, Financial Times

"The chief, and at times reassuring, virtue of Rebellion is [its] historical perspective, alloyed with Kagan's hopeful tone." --Bill Thompson, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Engaging and often surprising." --Brian Stewart, Commentary

"Comprehensive and compelling." --Jennifer Bort Yacovissi, Washington Independent Review of Books

About the Author

ROBERT KAGAN is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for The Washington Post. He is the author of The Ghost at the Feast, The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Dangerous Nation, Of Paradise and Power, and A Twilight Struggle. He served in the U.S. State Department from 1984 to 1988. He lives in Virginia.