Restoration of the Republic

Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy - the "ward republic" - Gary Hart here offers a blueprint for republican restoration in which every US citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. With relevance for contemporary society, including a plan for homeland security, "Restoration of the Republic" provides insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.

Politics corrupted by money and special interests. Citizens alienated from government. Much talk of rights, little mention of civic duty. This is the picture of a republic gone astray, according to Thomas Jefferson, who made citizen engagement and authentic democracy the focus of his mature political philosophy. In these pages, Gary Hart takes up questions Jefferson raised 200 years ago, and applies them to America today. He has written a timely, bracing book., An elegant...re-reading of Jefferson for the new century....[Hart's] historical conversation with Jefferson's evolving ideas and shining ideals...reminds readers that we can never look forward without understanding where we've been. That alone, especially in a present forever altered last September, is a worthy message., An insightful discussion of the problems in our civic life today....Hart's fine effort focus[es] our attention on the perils in our present [governmental] situation.

Gary Hart represented Colorado in the U.S. Senate from 1975 to 1987. He is the author of seventeen books, has taught at Yale, and lectured at the University of California and Oxford University, where he earned a doctor of philosophy degree in politics in 2001. As co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, he was credited with forecasting a 9/11-type attack. He resides with his family in Kittredge,Colorado.