From the acclaimed author of Unfinished Business, a story of crisis and change that can help us find renewed honesty and purpose in our personal and political lives Like much of the world, America is deeply divided over identity, equality, and history. Renewal is Anne-Marie Slaughter’s candid and deeply personal account of how her own odyssey opened the door to an important new understanding of how we as individuals, organizations, and nations can move backward and forward at the same time, facing the past and embracing a new future. Weaving together personal stories and reflections with insights from the latest research in the social sciences, Slaughter recounts a difficult time of self‐examination and growth in the wake of a crisis that changed the way she lives, leads, and learns. She connects her experience to our national crisis of identity and values as the country looks into a four-hundred-year-old mirror and tries to confront and accept its full reflection. The promise of the Declaration of Independence has been hollow for so many for so long. That reckoning is the necessary first step toward renewal. The lessons here are not just for America. Slaughter shows how renewal is possible for anyone who is willing to see themselves with new eyes and embrace radical honesty, risk, resilience, interdependence, grace, and vision. Part personal journey, part manifesto, Renewal offers hope tempered by honesty and is essential reading for citizens, leaders, and the change makers of tomorrow.

This volume advances a better, more historical and contextual, manner to consider not only the present, but also the future of ‘crisis’ and ‘renewal’ as key concepts of our political language as well as fundamental categories of interpretation.

The Lion’s Den (HB) By: Frank B. Atkinson The Lion’s Den is essential reading for anyone whose confidence in American democracy has been shaken by recent events. There is plenty to discourage and alarm us these days; the supply of negative political role models, real and fictional, seems endless. Frank Atkinson leaves no doubt that we can do better and be better. Just in time, it seems, he arrives with some exemplary political characters, a powerfully uplifting story, and a summons to get to work restoring the ethic of principled citizenship and service that reflects the ‘better angels of our nature’ and offers hope for bringing Americans together again.” - LARRY J. SABATO, Director, UVA Center for Politics The Lion’s Den offers a prescription for American renewal at a time of eroding confidence in our political institutions and growing confusion about our national purpose. In Frank Atkinson’s formulation, there are no quick fixes for our broken politics … no easy cure for what ails our democracy. A republic’s community spirit and capacity for constructive self-governance depend on a consensus about essential values and the active choice to practice, promote, and perpetuate those values. The ethic of principled citizenship and service that Atkinson considers indispensable for American renewal is not an inherited trait – like every ethic, it is a character requiring cultivation. And it is strongest when grounded in personal faith and integrity … illuminated by hard-learned lessons from history and experience … inspired by worthy human exemplars … propelled by the optimistic pursuit of a “more perfect union” … and kindled in a culture of mutual respect and forbearance guided by the “Golden Rule.” No starry-eyed idealist, Frank Atkinson’s major nonfiction works – The Dynamic Dominion and Virginia in the Vanguard – turned a candid lens on the hard-fought modern politics of his native state. In The Lion’s Den, he offers a compelling fictional account of life in the political arena – at once a venue for selfless contribution and palace of selfish ambition. Inspired by timeless lessons from the Book of Daniel, Madison’s vision of competition and compromise, and the colorful politics of his contemporary Commonwealth, Atkinson places his characters in a modern-day lion’s den where they grapple with vexing moral and practical choices. But Atkinson’s players find the grace to come together ... and, he suggests, so can we.

The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.

A brilliant condemnation of political hobbyism—treating politics like entertainment—and a call to arms for well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news, but do not take political action. Who is to blame for our broken politics? The uncomfortable answer to this question starts with ordinary citizens with good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly “engage” by consuming politics as if it’s a sport or a hobby. We soak in daily political gossip and eat up statistics about who’s up and who’s down. We tweet and post and share. We crave outrage. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime. Instead, we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. But most of us who are spending time on politics today are focused inward, choosing roles and activities designed for our short-term pleasure. We are repelled by the slow-and-steady activities that characterize service to the common good. In Politics Is for Power, pioneering and brilliant data analyst Eitan Hersh shows us a way toward more effective political participation. Aided by political theory, history, cutting-edge social science, as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.