Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines

Review "There's a booming literature on the erosion of democracy in America, as well as around the world, but David Pepper's book Laboratories of Autocracy stands out as arguably the most important...[It] provides a wealth of ideas about how to fight back to protect demcracy...This is no armchair account--it reads more like a well-organized set of field notes from battles seen first-hand."- Paul Rosenberg, Salon " [A] scorch-ingly good book....Buy his book. Read it. Act on it. Share it. And, as he says, "Resist.""- Columbus Free Press Pepper "persuasively argues that the site of the most pernicious corruption and assaults on democracy is not where congressional Republicans roam. It's in the statehouses, which Pepper calls "the most corrosive danger America faces."- Paul Waldman, The Washington Post "From my Texas to his Ohio to countless states in between, David Pepper rightly argues that the biggest risk to democracy lies in out-of-control, out-of-touch and undemocratic statehouses that too few people pay attention to. Until we address that root cause--and David suggests many practical steps we can all take--the nation's governance will continue to dangle in the balance. Read this book and spread the word." - Paul Begala "If you care about protecting democracy, then you need to know what's happening at the state level. And if you want to know what's happening at the state level, you should read this insightful, alarming and uniquely authoritative book." - David Litt, New York Times bestselling author and former Obama speechwriter "America is just awakening to the role played by state legislatures in engineering a hard U-turn back to the worst of our past, and now David Pepper, by using Ohio's sad transformation as his lens, has provided the details on how it's happened, who's behind it, and what can be done. He's performed a scary, but valuable service." - Brian Alexander, author of The Hospital and Glass House "My daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland school shooting. Because of my experience following what happened, Laboratories of Autocracy truly speaks to me. In Florida, we quickly mobilized and moved a mountain politically. We passed gun safety legislation. That was less than four years ago. As polarized as we were then, it is worse now, and that same result could never happen. The truth is, Florida, just like Ohio and many other states, has become more autocratic. A well-executed takeover of our political process by a minority has ensured that the will of the majority is thwarted. For those who need a lesson in why this happened and what we need to do going forward, you must read Laboratories of Autocracy." - Fred Guttenberg Product Description “It’s the statehouses, stupid.”Laboratories of Autocracy shows that far more than the high-profile antics of politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Jim Jordan—and yes, even bigger than Donald Trump’s "Big Lie”—it’s anonymous, often corrupt politicians in statehouses across the country who pose the greatest dangers to American democracy.Because these statehouses no longer operate as functioning democracies, these unknown politicians have all the incentive to keep doing greater damage, and can not be held accountable however extreme they get. This has driven steep declines in states like Ohio and others across the country. And collectively, it’s placed American democracy in its greatest peril since the dawn of the Jim Crow era.But Pepper doesn’t stop there. He lays out a robust pro-democracy agenda outlining how everyone from elected officials to business leaders to everyday citizens can fight back. About the Author David Pepper is the author of Laboratories of Autocracy (October 2021), as well as four novels, including A Simple Choice (forthcoming Putnam, 2022),and the Jack Sharpe series, including The Voter File, The Wingman, and The People's House. He earned his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He has clerked for a j