Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every American. This item is unavailable.Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every American

Laboratories of Autocracy walked through the hidden breadth, depth, and intensity of the countrywide attack on democracy. The final chapters outlined thirty steps necessary to fight back. One of the most common responses from readers was—“I skipped to the end. I wanted to get to the solutions.”

Saving Democracy is the companion book that skips to the end:
—It details how we all can and must play a role in saving democracy at this fraught time.
—It explains how all levels of the pro-democracy side, from national political leaders to grassroots activists to everyday Americans, must switch to offense.
—It explains how to stay on offense and win on offense. Immediately, and everywhere.

But it doesn’t do this at 30,000 feet.

It’s a user’s manual, intended to spur action. Your action. After a quick review of the true battle for democracy we are engaged in, each chapter explains how YOU, the reader, can and must play the leading role in lifting democracy. It details the concrete steps individuals and groups can take where you live, lists resources that can help along the way, and offers case studies and best practices that have worked elsewhere.

Saving Democracy is structured to challenge and guide each reader—no matter your role in your community or politics or where you work—on how you each can play a more active and effective role in lifting democracy than you might have imagined. Over the course of the book, you will construct your own personal plan to fight for democracy. And when you’re finished, you’ll be ready to get to work.

David Pepper is a lawyer, writer, political activist, former elected official, adjunct professor, and served as the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party between 2015 and 2021. Pepper is the author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wakeup Call from Behind the Lines (2021) which received nationwide attention and praise for its dire warning about the attack on democracy happening in states across the country. A review in Salon called it "arguably the most important" work on democracy in the nation. Pepper's work has been featured on: CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN; highlighted in the Washington Post, Time, The New York Times, Salon, The New Republic and The New Yorker; and has earned praise from a wide range of political leaders across party lines. Pepper also authored four novels that bridge real-world politics and fiction. His first novel, The People's House, earned praise for having "predicted the Russia scandal." The Wall Street Journal named Pepper "one of the best political-thriller writers on the scene." Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, David is a fifth-generation Cincinnatian. He earned his BA magna cum laude from Yale University where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and later earned his JD from Yale Law School. He was elected to serve as a member of the Cincinnati City Council and the Hamilton County Commission. The Ohio Democratic Party elected him chair in December 2014. David also teaches election and voting rights law as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.