Review
Fascinating, thought-provoking book... definitely worth a read -- Barbara Flanagan, ― Star Tribune
With America more divided than at any time since the 1960s, it's time to take a step back and thoughfully puzzle out the causes of our differences; this is what author and lawyer David Lebedoff tries to do in The Uncivil War. The book does not disappoint. Lebedoff has found an original and brilliant way to illuminate contemporary politics and culture. He provides a look at modern society through a lens that is once thoughtful, novel, and fun. -- Stanley Kurtz, ― National Review
Lebedoff describes an epic social struggle occurring at present between 'New Elites' and the 'Left Behinds.'
Lebedoff has found an original and brilliant way to illuminate contemporary politics and culture. -- Stanley Kurtz, ― National Review
Lebedoff writes elegantly. ― The New York Times
Lebenoff always writes fascinating, thought provoking books... definitely worth a read. ― Star Tribune
Once again David Lebedoff has turned his laser eye to the American polity and American politics. Anyone wanting to understand either should read this book, which is a swift read and a narrative prize. -- Ben Wattenberg, American Enterprise Institute
Mr. David Lebedoff addresses here an issue as timely as the front page of your daily newspaper and as ancient as Aristotle: 'Who makes the laws?' Aristotle observes that a polity can have government by the one, the few, or the many, and that the conflict over which is to prevail creates permanent instability. The ensuing history of Europe amply demonstrated this. In 1787, the American founders tried to solve the problem of perpetual instability through their theory of mixed government, but, finally, they made 'We the People' the first three words of the Constitution, the basis for the laws. The sense of the people, in order to be deliberate was to be filtered through the constitutional process. But We the People finally wrote the laws. The founders, after all, had just won a revolution against government by the one. Their founding principle is now under assault by an effort to establish "government by the few," government by law school graduates being one expression of this. Mr. Lebedoff offers here a profound analysis of how this has come to pass. -- Jeffrey Hart
Lebedoff shines a powerful beam of light into the deep social and political waters of the last thirty years, the light of intelligence and concrete observation, and he is consciously in the mainstream of the American democratic political tradition. In his precision and his lucidity, he is a latter-day Toqueville. -- Jeffrey Hart ― National Review
From the Publisher
This controversial book describes how the New Elite-a self selected class whose members believe they know what's good for the rest of us-has been systematically attacking our tradition of majority rule. The capture of our political parties by extremists, campaigns based on anger rather than issues, laws created by unelected judges, congressmen immune from defeat, and an alienated and ignored electorate all represent a calculated effort of a new class to replace the public will with its own.
About the Author
David Lebedoff is the author of numerous articles and several books of social and political commentary, including The New Elite. He lives in Minneapolis.
