Rage and the Republic: Turley’s New Book is Now Available for Pre-Order

Simon & Schuster has announced the upcoming release of my new book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution. The book is now available for pre-order and will be released on February 3, 2026 for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. If you want to be among the first to receive the book, you can preorder here.

The book examines the American democracy and the unique elements that came together to create the world’s most successful and stable political system. The book discusses the meaning of democracy, from Athens to the EU. It focuses on the dangers of democratic despotism and why, as shown vividly in “The Terror” in France, revolutions (like the legend of Saturn) devour their own. The greatest exception to that seemingly inexorable pattern proved to be the American Revolution.

The first half of the book looks back at the American Revolution and compares the sharply different course taken by the French Revolution just a few years later. The book explores this contrast through the story of Thomas Paine, one of only two major figures who played a substantive role in both revolutions. (The other being Lafayette). Some of the facts shared in this book may surprise you, including how corset-making may have saved the American Revolution.

From privateer to pamphleteer, Paine may have been the quintessential American who came to these shores to reinvent himself after a long litany of personal and business failures. He was also arguably the most revolutionary of his American contemporaries. Paine rejected many of Madison’s “auxiliary precautions” and lived to see the dangers of democratic despotism play out in France to a horrific degree. Indeed, it came very close to killing him in Paris.

The second half of the book looks forward to whether American democracy can survive in the 21^st Century. The book explores the impact of economic, social, and technological changes, including the rise of robotics and the impact of AI. The world is about to experience a shift in economic conditions that has not been seen for centuries. Those changes may bring about a large, stagnant unemployed class living off a universal basic income or other forms of state support. The book explores how the United States can maintain a “liberty-enhancing economy” to minimize greater class separation, wealth stagnation, and individual dependency. The success of the American democracy was due in no small part to the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations at the time of the Declaration of Independence. Many of the same political economic principles embraced by the Founders could hold the hope for the future of American democracy as this uncertain century unfolds.

Synthesizing sources from history to philosophy to the arts, the book explores how the lessons of the past can guide us through today’s “crisis of faith” in democracy and see us into the future.

“From redcoats to robots, our challenges have changed. Yet, we have remained. Our greatest danger is not forgetting the history detailed in this book, but forgetting who we were in that history.”

Jonathan Turley, Rage and the Republic