American Schism

“Those seeking to heal our divided nation should read American Schism. In an age of unreason, Seth David Radwell deftly conveys the history of our core values and shows us a reasoned way forward.”

—Ana Navarro, CNN contributor

“American Schism is a vigorously written, deeply informed intellectual tour de force and a bracing call to nonviolent arms!"

—David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross

"Almost every book I read about America these days makes me more pessimistic about the country’s future. Seth Radwell’s American Schism is a rare exception. Mr. Radwell shows that Americans have argued angrily about the meaning of the Enlightenment from the founding onwards. But he also shows that disagreements have not prevented them from forging creative consensuses. What might a new creative consensus look like? Mr. Radwell presents an admirable answer to this question—and demonstrates how long-standing American ideas about meritocracy and freedom can be reinvented and revitalized for a new and more diverse age.”

—Adrian Wooldridge, author of The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

"With America facing an ever-expanding slew of challenges, the only bipartisan solution often seems to be blaming the other side. What this reflects, according to Seth David Radwell, is the divide between two distinct visions of the Enlightenment, one moderate and one radical, that has been present since the nation’s founding and continues to shape our politics. Today the danger is that our divisions will cause us to abandon Enlightenment values–reason, tolerance and pluralism–altogether, retreating into a more primordial emphasis on loyalty to faction or political ‘tribe’ above principle and the common good. As a student of history and politics, and a committed political innovator, I wholly recommend Radwell’s book as a vital foundation on which to build a better understanding of not just the problems of twenty-first-century America but of the solutions we require."

—Katherine M. Gehl, author of The Politics Industry

"American Schism makes a counterintuitive yet compelling case: we shouldn’t overcome our disagreements; we should accentuate the right disagreements—those rooted in the competing, but always fact-based, visions that emerged in the Enlightenment and shaped America’s founding. Deftly moving from philosophy to history to contemporary politics, Seth David Radwell illuminates an innovative path to a better society.”

—Jacob S. Hacker, professor of political science, Yale University, co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

"A familiar narrative is that America was founded on eighteenth-century Enlightenment ideals and principles. Twenty years ago, however, Jonathan Israel influentially argued that there were actually two contending schools of Enlightenment thought—one more radical, secular, democratic, and egalitarian, and the other more moderate and friendlier to established religion, hierarchy, and the protection of property. American Schism shows how both competing strands were represented at our nation’s founding and have been vying in our national life ever since. The upshot is that the roots of our current division are much deeper than we may have thought. American Schism provides a compelling account of our nation’s past and present and makes a vigorous case for a hopeful future.”

—Stephen Darwall, Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

"Radwell makes a powerful argument that many of America’s greatest internal conflicts—past and present—are part of a titanic, ongoing struggle between conflicting camps of Enlightenment thought, one championing a democratic republic, the other an aristocratic one."

—Colin Woodard, author of Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood and American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

"For those of us who are anxious about the state of democracy in the US and beyond, Radwell’s book is a salve. He diagnoses the sorry state of American democracy as our intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment: many of our deepest divisions, he writes, are the result of earlier disagreements about how to interpret the Enlightenment project itself. But behind our current divisions, Radwell glimpses the prospects for a more hopeful future—one which requires re-committing ourselves to certain Enlightenment ideals. I find Radwell’s vision compelling: historically nuanced, well-argued, and with a focus firmly on what we all have reason to hope is a better future together.”

—Sanford C. Goldberg , Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities and professor of philosophy, Northwestern University, professorial fellow, Arché Research Center, University of St. Andrews

"As the political polarization in our country deepens seemingly by the day, Seth David Radwell’s American Schism could not come at a better time. In contrast to the widespread belief that our current state of affairs is unprecedented, Radwell shows that, in fact, its roots date back to the origins of this country in the form of ‘The Two Enlightenments.’ American Schism is a fascinating historical work, but Radwell also offers an optimistic look forward and a detailed road map for how we can restore our unity and greatness.”

— Whitney Tilson, co-author of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, More Mortgage Meltdown, The Art of Value Investing, and The Art of Playing Defense, and a well-known value investor and philanthropist.

"An intriguing exploration of how past historical conflicts continue to play out in our present divisions.”

—Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen

"It is not often that one encounters history powerfully combined with analysis of our present, deeply troubling reality in a way that compels us to reconsider and reset our own political notions . . . Seth David Radwell, with his engaging style, has done just that, escorting us from the America of the Enlightenment to the United States of today in a way that will cause a great many of us to rethink.”

—Jonathan Israel, leading Enlightenment scholar and Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing Our Nation by Seth David Radwell is a non-fiction political book that opens up a dialogue on the massive division tearing away at the fabric of the United States, with insight on a potential path toward restoration. The book begins with a history of schisms on a global scale, addressing the time before and after Enlightenment, its impact, and the first rippling of divergence. Radwell then moves forward with the United States in her infancy and as she ages, growing but severely hindered by combative ideologies without even the common ground of moralistic alignment, taking what appear to be steps forward but hardly getting anywhere at all. Finally, Radwell poses some hard-hitting questions about Counter-Enlightenment and the damage it has caused and the importance of getting back onto the road first paved by the Radical Enlightenment thinkers. ‘It is incumbent on us to stop the putrefaction and rebuild a more durable foundation for an America that lives up to the Radical Enlightenment principles that were its birthright.’

I was pretty behind the curve on understanding American politics and how they actually worked, watching with a mix of intrigue and horror from afar as the beacon of the world appeared to be in a slow, burning decline. Then, ten years ago I married an American and the veil was lifted from my sore British eyes: the United States has been at war with itself, and nobody was likely to win. American Schism dives as deep as I’ve read on what the root cause actually is and how the way forward begins with understanding what truly happened in the past. Seth David Radwell writes with a tight, convincing narrative that is both compelling and eerily straightforward, using a foundation of the failings of top-down governance that keeps the top up and the bottom crushed on the ground. He uses factual examples and parallels them with quotes, movements, laws, and wars. So many wars. The parts I enjoyed the most were when Radwell dispelled the blanket myths of what 'by the people, for the people' means, focusing on the necessity of equality of opportunity with an equal baseline, which has never existed and most definitely needs to. Very, very highly recommended.”

— Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers’ Favorite

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