NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bold case for reimagining the American project and making American democracy real—from a formidable new voice in political journalism
“The first thing I’ve read that provides a rigorous vision of how to refound this nation if we manage to survive the current threats to these core values.”—Chris Hayes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sirens’ Call
Frustrated with our political dysfunction, wearied by the thinness of contemporary political discourse, and troubled by the rise of anti-democratic attitudes across the political spectrum, journalist Osita Nwanevu has spent the Trump era examining the very meaning of democracy in search of answers to questions many have asked in the wake of the 2024 election: Are our institutions fundamentally broken? How can a country so divided govern itself? Does democracy even work as well as we believe?
The Right of the People offers us challenging answers: while democracy remains vital, American democracy is an illusion we must make real by transforming not only our political institutions but the American economy. In a text that spans democratic theory, the American Founding, our aging political system, and the dizzying inequalities of our new Gilded Age, Nwanevu makes a visionary case for a political and economic agenda to fulfill the promise of American democracy and revive faith in the American project.
“Nearly two hundred fifty years ago, the men who founded America made a fundamental break not just from their old country but from the past—casting off an order that had subjugated them with worn and weak ideas for the promise of true self-governance and greater prosperity in a new republic,” Nwanevu writes. “With exactly their sense of purpose and even higher, more righteous ambitions for America than they themselves had, we should do the same now—work as hard as we can in the decades ahead to ‘institute new Government’ for the benefit of all and not just the few.”
About the Author
Osita Nwanevu is a contributing editor for The New Republic and a columnist for The Guardian, writing about American politics and culture. He lives in Baltimore. This is his first book.
Praise For…
“The first thing I’ve read that provides a rigorous vision of how to refound this nation if we manage to survive the current threats to this these core values.”—Chris Hayes
“The Right of the People is a thoughtful look at the challenges facing our political system—and a timely reminder of what American democracy can still be. It offers a grounded, practical agenda to try and point us toward a better path.”—Congressman Ro Khanna
“New Republic political writer Nwanevu offers remedies for an ailing American democracy. . . . His writing is vibrant, even optimistic, animated by a clear belief that self-governance is the best kind of governance, and damn the torpedoes. A resounding, persuasive call for a truly inclusive government of the people.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Democracy’s allies have to rethink it both economically and politically, Osita Nwanevu shows, to keep conservatives who are junking democracy from winning, and to keep liberals with little more than hashtags about democracy from oversimplifying the task. With his trademark style, Nwanevu takes readers on a journey, beginning with the Greeks and dwelling on the Founding, to a contemporary America that desperately needs a new democracy to replace its incomplete one.”—Samuel Moyn, Yale University
“Nwanevu has a truly remarkable—almost unique—ability to distill a broad range of academic scholarship into a fully accessible argument of his own about the deficiencies of the present American constitutional system and the drastic need for fundamental reform and, indeed, a 'New American Founding.' This superb book deserves the widest possible readership—and, more to the point, ensuing discussion and political action generated by his incisive analysis.”—Sanford Levinson, author of Our Undemocratic Constitution
