Jonathan Turley

What destroyed the French Revolution were many of the same types of voices we're hearing today.

These are riots.

They are people who are inebriated by rage.

I think it was a miracle that saved his life, actually.

People today talk like they want to kill each other.

And I said, Congressman, they were actually trying to kill each other back then.

That's what the Alien and Sedition Acts were.

Well, the book itself, coming out before the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, gives us a chance to take stock of not just where we are, but who we are.

And the first half of the book looks backwards.

It looks at, really, what were the unique characters and actions that came together to create the most successful democracy in the history of the world?

And to do that, I compare two revolutions.

It's really a tale of two cities, Philadelphia and Paris, both of which were experiencing growing violence.

This is after the revolution in Philadelphia.

But one, Philadelphia, stopped almost on a dime.

The violence ended with the ratification of the United States Constitution, a system that allowed for pressures to be vented within the system instead of on the streets.

Paris, of course, turned into a bloodletting known as the Terror.

And so I explore that by looking at a common denominator in the form of Thomas Paine, who was one of two of our great leaders of the early republic that was involved in both revolutions, the other one being Lafayette.

What really comes out of this, as you, I think, really poignantly noted, Glenn, is that we've been here before, that the rage we're seeing, many of the voices we're hearing, we have seen and heard before.

And it is sort of a cautionary tale of what destroyed the French Revolution, where many of the same types of voices we're hearing today.

The second half of the book looks forward.