This book is a vigorous effort to answer the question, "How did we get here?"—a question that troubles virtually every American over the age of fourteen. How did America lose power in the world? How did American democracy become undermined? The press industry, who once would have been charged with answering this question, is not—according to Phelps—currently capable of doing so. Closely read, this book allows an answer to emerge to this compelling American question.