The Narrow Passage - by Glenn Ellmers (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Americans today seem to be more divided than at any time since the Civil War. Our differences are not just political and moral, but philosophical and even spiritual. Red and Blue America hardly seem to live in the same reality. Something has gone terribly wrong with the American political community. It has been a long time since the people of the United States fully exercised their sovereign authority to choose the officials in government whose primary job is to protect the people's natural rights according to the Constitution. Our political community has become something different. America, our 'regime,' has become post-constitutional. Yet it is not entirely clear what this post-constitutional arrangement is, how it operates, who is in charge, or how to fix it. Where did this crisis come from? Can it be overcome? What does the future hold for the survival of the American Constitution? Glenn Ellmers--a senior fellow with the Claremont Institute, prolific analyst of current affairs, and scholar of political philosophy--explores the deepest roots of our political turmoil and shows the connections between government bureaucracy, the misuse of science, and the leftwing ideology that controls so much of our public and private life"

Book Synopsis

Americans are more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. Our differences are not merely moral and political, but philosophical, and even spiritual. We hardly seem to experience the same reality anymore, preferring to self-select into media perception chambers whose projections vary according to political persuasion.

Something has gone terribly wrong in the American political community. We have entered an era wherein the federal government's democratically elected officers are powerless in comparison to their unelected, bureaucratic counterparts. The old balance of power, laid out in the Constitution, has been replaced by an entirely new structure.

The American regime has become post-constitutional. But what is this post-constitutional arrangement? How does it operate? Who is in charge? Can it be overcome? What role will the Constitution play in the nation's future?

Glenn Ellmers--senior fellow with the Claremont Institute, widely-published analyst of current affairs, and scholar of political philosophy--provides answers to these and other questions, as he explores the deepest roots of our political turmoil, illustrating the connections between government bureaucracy, the misuse of science, and the leftwing ideology that controls so much of our public and private life.

Review Quotes

"Glenn Ellmers has written an important book in the spirit of his teacher, Harry V. Jaffa. He shows that the study of political philosophy is indispensable to an understanding of the political turmoil in America today. Combining the intellectual and political, or the theoretical and practical, he reveals the deeper crisis of civilization itself, what Leo Strauss called the Crisis of the West."

--John Marini, author of Unmasking the Administrative State

About the Author

GLENN ELLMERS holds a PhD in political philosophy and American government from Claremont Graduate University, and is the author of The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America. He is the Salvatori Research Fellow in the American Founding at the Claremont Institute, and a prolific--often controversial--commentator on public affairs.