Books

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“Kevin O’Leary offers us a timely and important examination of the illiberal idiocy that courses throughout American history. He champions a revitalized liberalism that should win over those who are searching for an alternative to the threat posed by the right. This book should be read - and read now.” 

—Kevin Mattson, author of When America Was Great: The Fighting Faith of Postwar Liberalism, professor of  History, Ohio University

“To tell the unsettling story of the nation’s continued drift into Trumpism and its many attendant ills, O’Leary plunges back into the historical record. A highly opinionated yet accessible work of history and current affairs.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“O’Leary illustrates with dismaying accuracy and 

compelling intelligence how illiberalism’s co-opting of the modern Republican Party has unbalanced the American system, allowing nationalists, white supremacists, and economic oligarchs to subvert the Founders’ aspirational ideals of democratic enfranchisement and equality. Essential reading.”

— Booklist, Starred Review

“The Republican Party has lost its moorings. Donald Trump is the immediate cause, but only a symptom of a larger problem. Kevin O’Leary could not be more timely with his new book Madison’s Sorrow.”

—Norm Ornstein, co-author of One Nation After Trump: and It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

“The problem with our politics is not Donald Trump; it is the many who support him. Kevin O’Leary’s book explains in great detail and with the clearest of prose, just how this crazy situation came about.” 

— Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism, professor at Boston College

“A compelling account of the rise of the right in contemporary American politics and the threat that it poses to the country’s most basic values. This beautifully written book is deeply disturbing and a must read for all who care about the future of American democracy.”

—Erwin Chemerinsky, author of The Case Against the Supreme Court and , Dean of University of California, Berkeley School of Law

“If you want to understand the deeper menace of Trumpism, read this book. Kevin O’Leary tells this complex and alarming story brilliantly. He gets at its deep, twisted roots.”

—Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect and author of  The Stakes: 2020  and the Survival of American Democracy

"Every so often the fundamentals of American democracy require serious re-examination.  In the wake of the operational paralysis, the corruption, and the scorched-earth partisanship of today’s politics, the need for re-examination is acute. Saving Democracy is a stimulating and original proposal to make political deliberation far more inclusive and representative than it is today."

 —James Fallows, The Atlantic

"Saving Democracy is a refreshing, exhilarating read. Steeped in knowledge of the American political system, O'Leary draws on Hume, Harrington, Jefferson, and others to craft a case for republicanizing the national system so as to advance citizen participation. This would add a new structural feature to the basic Madisonian design. O'Leary's ideas are, to say the least, provocative."

—David Mayhew, Yale University 

"Kevin OLeary has written a wonderful book. His topic is American democracy; his goal is to improve it. And he has some ideas—original, imaginative, and sensible—about how to achieve this ambitious aim. The proposed reforms would make our democracy more participatory, more deliberative, and better equipped to solve large national problems. That is an attractive package, and OLeary presents it with engaging prose and forceful argument. Read this book, and act on it."

—Joshua Cohen, Stanford University

"America needs this book.  These imaginative reforms are designed to bring citizens back to their own politics and inspire them to work together for the common good." 

—Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University 

"There is nothing wrong with American democracy that a return to majority rule couldnt cure. Kevin OLeary has a bold but realistic vision of how the restoration of real democracy could happen."

—Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography