This chatty history of republicanism is based on the premise that
few Americans today know what a republic is; unfortunately,
Everdell, a history teacher at St. Ann's School in Brooklyn
Heights, hasn't got it right either. The main point of a republic,
to him, is that it stands in opposition to monarchy. He thus
acknowledges, but relegates to second place, the fact that a
republic is different from a democracy: a republic may be more or
less democratic, or more or less aristocratic, and still be a
republic. And he finds no evidence for the crucial idea that a
republic is a system based on representation. Representation was
not a part of the Roman republic, he says, and no part of classical
republicanism. This is plain wrong. Evergard disregards the
theoretical basis of republicanism in Aristotle's depiction of the
polity - composed of the one, the few, and the many - as the best
and most stable form of government. The ancient Greeks were
democrats, not republicans - their government was based on
participation by citizens - while the Roman republic was just that;
and it was, contra Everdell, Aristotelian in composition.
Everdell's fundamental confusion is compounded when he extols
Switzerland as a republic (the federated Swiss cantons are based on
direct democracy, not republicanism). Occasionally he does hit on a
real republican: Machiavelli, John Milton, John Adams. But also
included are Thaddeus Stevens, because he opposed the excessive
presidential powers of Andrew Johnson, and Sam Ervin, for a like
stand in the case of Richard Nixon. History-by-slogan, and mistaken
from the start. (Kirkus Reviews)
Written in clear, lively prose, "The End of Kings" traces the
history of republican governments and the key figures that are
united by the simple republican maxim: "No man shall rule alone."
Breathtaking in its scope, Everdell's book moves from the Hebrew
Bible, Solon's Athens and Brutus's Rome to the impeachment trial of
Andrew Johnson and the Watergate proceedings during which Nixon
resigned. Along the way, he carefully builds a definition of
"republic" which distinguishes democratic republics from
aristocratic ones for both history and political science. In a new
foreword, Everdell addresses the impeachment trial of President
Clinton and argues that impeachment was never meant to punish
private crimes. Ultimately, Everdell's brilliant analysis helps us
understand how examining the past can shed light on the present.
"[An] energetic, aphoristic, wide-ranging book."--Marcus Cunliffe,
"Washington Post Book World"
"Ambitious in conception and presented in a clear and sprightly
prose. . . . [This] excellent study . . . is the best statement of
the republican faith since Alphonse Aulard's essays almost a
century ago." --"Choice"
"A book which ought to be in the hand of every American who agrees
with Benjamin Franklin that the Founding Fathers gave us a Republic
and hoped that we would be able to keep it."-Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
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