Fox News contributor, constitutional law professor, and bestselling author Jonathan Turley came to the Nixon Library on July 20th for a timely conversation as America marks its 250th birthday. As part of the Nixon Foundation’s Shaun and Leland Smith Distinguished Speaker Series, Turley discussed his latest bestseller, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.
As Turley described it, “Rage and the Republic is a book about revolutions—how they begin and, more importantly, how they end. Most do not end well. Indeed, the Framers were focused on trying to essentially beat the hold of history.” The book’s first half looks back at the American and French Revolutions, contemporaries of each other. Describing the American Revolution as the first true Enlightenment revolution, Turley explains how the United States escaped the cycles of violence and instability that plagued other democratic movements.
The book’s second half looks forward, asking whether this unique republic can survive. The subtitle, Unfinished Revolution, underscores that “every generation has to save what so many sacrificed to create and preserve.”
Turley also examines AI and robotics, noting that most revolutions are rooted in economics. He closes on an optimistic note: “I think we can thrive, not just survive, in the 21st century because we have a system that was built for change. It’s in our DNA. We have the most nimble system in the world. The only way we’re going to fail in this century is if we change the system.”
Watch here:
