The Life and Death of Democracy

From Plato to de Tocqueville to Fukuyama–an epic history of the governing philosophy that has defined Western history. In the grand tradition of Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers comes this provocative history of world democracy, which begins with the ancient Myceans and ends in our fractious present. Overturning long-cherished notions, John Keane poses challenging questions: Did democracy actually begin in ancient Greece or earlier…