The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America

Victor Davis Hanson

Oct 2021 · Sold by Basic Books

About this ebook

The New York Times bestselling author of The Case for Trump explains the decline and fall of the once cherished idea of American citizenship.

Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.

In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.

As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

Ratings and reviews

What is the GOP message for the American people? Cancel Culture? Dr. Seuss or Mr. Potato Head? Hunter Biden?Fox News is a safe space, all they do is WHINE and complain about everything but NEVER bring anything to the table.

This was, quite possibly, the best book I've ever read! Never has an author had his or her finger on the pulse of patriotic Americans' sentiments as has Victor Davis Hanson. Cleverly and simply staged in two genres (pre-citizen and post-citizen) and assigning three chapters in each, VDH spells out, in mostly layman's terms, the danger of eroding citizenship, not to be confused with residency, brought about by woke globalists and socialists, greedy large corporations, unelected bureaucratic officials and the like. Moreover, his epilogue keenly and brilliantly assess this past year's goings-on with such accuracy and candor. A must read. I implore every American CITIZEN to take the time to reinvigorate and reestablish their pride of this exceptional country by spending a few hours reading this already treasured book. You won't be sorry and you just might learn a thing or two.

5 stars to offset the double masked nut job one star review on 10/6/2021.

About the author

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, including A War Like No Other, The Second World Wars, and The End of Everything. He lives in Selma, California.