Our Nation at Risk - by Julian E Zelizer & Karen J Greenberg (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book, will bring together some of the nation's top political scientists, historians, and legal scholars to examine different areas where the stability and integrity of the electoral process has become a threat to national security"--

Book Synopsis

The nation's top political scientists, historians, and legal scholars propose solutions for democracy's future

In recent years, the sight of gun-wielding citizens patrolling ballot boxes and voting sites has become increasingly familiar. Major news corporations parroting false claims of election fraud, ballot stuffing, and faulty voting systems is the new normal. In an era of global anti-democratic movements, the sanctity of democratic electoral processes has become a major national security concern, and the need to protect elections from foreign interference, disinformation, voter intimidation, and the danger of election results being overturned, are now front and center. How did we get here? And more importantly, how will this affect the future of democracy?

Award-winning authors Julian E. Zelizer and Karen J. Greenberg bring together the nation's top political scientists, historians, and legal scholars to examine how the lack of stability and integrity of the electoral process has become a threat to national security. Through historical and social scientific analysis, contributors outline how these problems have emerged and propose concrete solutions to move us into a period of greater stability. At once urgent and comprehensive, Our Nation at Risk is the preeminent book on election security and a must read for anyone invested in the fight for democracy.

Review Quotes

"An incredible book on one of the most important issues facing our democracy. With contributions by leading experts, this book gives us a thorough and easily-comprehensible account of the problem of election integrity and why it matters to our national security. If you want to understand how to make our country and elections more secure, this book is indispensable."--Guy-Uriel Emmanuel Charles, Harvard Law School

"Greenberg and Zelizer have pulled together an all-star cast of experts who, collectively, convey the sheer urgency of America's election-security crisis while tackling the subject in a deeply informed, level-headed way. Anyone concerned with the preservation of American democracy should carefully consider the array of remedies that this book proposes."--Mark Atwood Lawrence, University of Texas at Austin

"Here is a wealth of wise and authoritative essays on threats to our democracy, present and past. Karen Greenberg and Julian Zelizer have assembled some of the nation's most brilliant scholars of politics, law, and history to explain the roots of the current crisis and how we might resolve it. A splendid volume of scholarly wisdom that anyone who cares about the American future should read."--Michael Kazin, author of What it Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party

"Timely, innovative, and important. Our Nation at Risk is a brilliant collection of essays that thoughtfully reframes America's voting rights crisis as a national security issue. Anyone interested in the future of our democratic experiment will be interested in reading and learning from this essential book."--Peniel Emmaus Joseph, University of Texas at Austin

"My suspicion is that once you start reading these stellar entries, you will want to read (and teach) the rest. This book manages to achieve a rare thing. It is a work of reference that is enjoyable to read, even in the somewhat artificial way a reviewer must: cover to cover."-- "Legacy"

"Rogue Justice is Karen Greenberg's splendid new book about all the ways liberty was assaulted in America in the decade after the cataclysm of 11 September 2001. By connecting so many of the dots in the War on Terror, the author has made her own very important contribution."-- "The Guardian, Praise for Rogue Justice by Karen Greenberg"

"An authoritative and fitting contribution to the myth-busting genre."-- "The New York Times, Praise for Myth America, edited by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer"

"Detailed and meticulously researched... [an] excellent book... [and] an unflinching document."-- "Just Security, Praise for Rogue Justice by Karen Greenberg"

"Greenberg . . . a longtime critic of expanded state power after 9/11, draws a straight line between the early U.S. response to the attacks and the abuses of the Trump administration."--Quinta Jurecic "The Washington Post, Praise for Subtle Tools by Karen Greenberg"

"Newt Gingrich tied American politics to a rock and threw it down a well. That rock is still falling. Julian Zelizer's new book takes readers to the edge of that well, not to listen for the splash, but to grab the rope, and pull."--Jill Lepore "Praise for Burning Down the House by Julian Zelizer"

"These essays treat readers to wonderfully accessible, jargon-free writing."-- "The Washington Post, Praise for Myth America, edited by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer"

"This is an expertly researched cri de coeur regarding recapturing the processes and procedures of American democracy, which Greenberg argues were lost in the 20 years between the 9/11 attacks and the present."-- "Choice, Praise for Subtle Tools by Karen Greenberg"

About the Author

Julian E. Zelizer (Editor)
Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is the award-winning author and editor of 25 books including The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society and Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.

Karen J. Greenberg (Editor)
Karen J. Greenberg is the Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law. She is the author and editor of many books, including The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, and The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First One Hundred Days.