'The transformation of the US into an autocracy has advanced. By 2024 it might be irreversible
[and] will change almost everything in the world. Nobody has outlined this danger more
compellingly than Robert Kagan.' - Martin Wolf Financial Times A chilling and clear-eyed
warning about the threats to our democracy posed by the increasing radicalization of the
Republican Party from a leading historian and intellectual The 2024 election could be the
last free election held in a unified America. So warns Robert Kagan in this brilliant and
terrifying analysis of the perilous state of democracy in the United States today. If Donald
Trump loses the upcoming election as he did in 2020 but refuses to accept the result as he
also did in the last election he is likely to call on his millions of followers to repudiate
the election results. It will be a short step from there to Republican-dominated states
rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government and effectively seceding. The United States
at that point will cease to be united with grave consequences for both Americans and the
world. In Rebellion Kagan dives deeper than the op-eds and think pieces to explore the
historical forces that have brought us to this moment-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. This is an elegant and deeply informed synthesis of
history contemporary politics and ideas that sheds light on this crucial moment.
