Roots of Democracy

Audiobook Review:
The title of this book should really be “The DNA of American Democracy.” After the initial discussion of historical democracy starting in ancient Greece and hand-chosen other countries, the focus is on democracy in the United States of America. I did find the author's exploration of the historical roots of democratic ideals and societies with some form of democracy to be fascinating, even though I would have liked a little more detail about some of them. Since the book's title did not specify the US, I would have loved to have seen an exploration of the roots of democracy in other modern countries. However, we shouldn't judge a book by what it isn't or what we would like it to be. For what it is, one author’s look at the history of democracy, foreign and mostly domestic, I enjoyed listening to the audiobook as it got me thinking more about what democracy is and what it should be. I found it a particularly poignant listen as I did so during the politically tumultuous first month of 2021.

This was an interesting book at this point in history. It talks about the history of democracy and how we make sure that it stays strong. History buffs will enjoy this!

2.5 stars
This book markets itself as a guide to democracy, a handbook to help you recognise what is a democracy and what isn't. It didn't hit the mark...
There were some interestings references to times gone by and their relationship with democracy (Greece, the British Isles, etc.) but they weren't developed much in favor of talking of American History in great detail (greeeeaaaat deeeeetaaaaaail).

Here are some points that merited the low stars:

1. It's highly biased in favor of democracy. Almost everything is, to be fair, but I was expecting a little more objective facts and less opinions.
2. It's a book written by an American to Americans in which America is the greatest and only model of all that it's good. Democracy, family, religion, all are better in America. When talking about the indigenous people and slavery his stance was: it was bad, it was just some people who weren't true to what America is and believes in, we actually learned a lot about democracy from the native Americans.
3. For this author there are only 2 government systems: Democracy or Tyranny. He says that "the few" or "the one" can't serve the interests of "the many" but there is no argument about it. It's just presented as a fact. Which is weird because I'd say the author is a Christian (from the some of other very objective passages *cue eye roll*) and God is the exact example of "the One" rulling the many having their best interests at heart. But who am I to say that it's "either democracy or tyranny" is a too simplistic view of the situation?
4. He claims that since the Kings of Israel "demanded to be recognised" as anointed by God, they weren't a democracy and, thus, not following God's will. But the 10 commandments were God's constitution with which He created a democracy. But the American Constitution is better. It just makes so much sense... not.
5. The weird summarys at the end of the chapters that didn't work at all in the audio version.

All in all, a disappointement that made roll my eyes too many times to count. Could have been interesting if it focused in some different points that were just given as details. Probably better in the written format.

With a line as "discerning the future of democracy begins with understanding its past" in the synopsis I had expected a little more than I was given with this book. It wasn't all bad, of course but I still felt somewhat disappointed.

Most of the content was fine, in my opinion. I probably would've thought it more than fine if there was a little more time spend on certain chapters but based on content alone it would've been a three star read for me. But seeing as this is a audiobook review I also need to talk about that part and that's where this book kind of lost me.

First of all, this is my first time listening and reviewing an audiobook from NetGalley. The app created for it isn't very great. This is of course all on NetGalley itself and not this book but I still feel like I have to throw that warning out there.

The narrators, Eileen Stevens and Jay Lusteck, weren't the best, in my opinion. I had a hard time getting into their ways of narrating this audiobook. Eileen Stevens was okay. Not the best I've ever listened to but I could deal with it. Jay Lusteck was less than okay. But I also think that this has something to do with him suddenly starting to talk out of the blue, not even less than a second when the other narrator stopped. It really confused me. This is of course more a critisism to the book itself or the way the audiobook was edited than Jay Lusteck as a narrator but still I just thought it was pretty weird.

And one last thing, I also feel like if I would've read this book in any other form than in audio format I would've liked it more. My dislike really was about the audiobook. It just didn't work for me.