“With a light, yet devastating touch, Griffin charts our continued ‘wrestling’ with democratic ideals—her incisive search for the soul of democracy stirs up pride, despair, and hope.”—Booklist, starred review 

“Charming and even lyrical.”—Baltimore Sun

“An intellectually satisfying account that shows through the stories of selected historical personalities and her own life that democracy is, and always will be, a work in progress.”—Foreword Magazine

“Susan Griffin’s superb prose reveals democracy not as a distant abstraction but as a live, inspiring, and difficult presence shaping us every day, an angel all Americans wrestle with.”—George Lakoff, author of Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea

What does is it mean to be a citizen of the United States? Susan Griffin’s provocative investigation of that question takes us from the Declaration of Independence to the Iraq War, with many stops in between. Her conclusion: democracy is nothing less than a revolution of consciousness, and the revolution has just begun.