In 2008, America elected a serious and apparently transformational figure, Barack Obama, to the presidency. He promised a new America and a better world. Eight years later, the same country is seriously considering electing a demagogic reality television star to the White House. In The Fragile Democracy, Christopher Jackson examines not only the Obama Administration, the 2016 Republican field, and the Democratic response, but also the Brexit in the UK, democracy in the ancient world, and the state of the Enlightenment in modern politics. If you read one book about politics in this extraordinary year, it needs to be this one.