One value of “How to Save Democracy: Advice and Inspiration from 95 World Leaders” is the hope and optimism it instills in readers. It brings poetry to the fight, but, as vital to triumphing over demagoguery and corruption, it outlines seven key principles of democratic success.

-Eli Merritt on his recently released book

Merritt joins on on A Public Affair to discuss the threats facing democracy and how we might combat them.

Eli Merritt is a political historian at Vanderbilt. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others. His Substack, American Commonwealth, explores the origins of the United States’ political discontents and solutions to them. 

He is the editor of How to Save Democracy: Inspiration and Advice From 95 World Leaders (Amplify, March 2023) as well as of The Curse of Demagogues: Lessons Learned from the Presidency of Donald J. Trump (Spotlight Press, 2022). His book Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution is forthcoming (University of Missouri Press, June 2023). 

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