What do you think?
Rate this book
American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism
American Leviathan is the story of the rise of Progressive Statism and their massive, bureaucratic Administrative State at the turn of the 20th century and how we got to where we are today in the 21st century with governmental abuse by a class of so-called experts. Because of Progressives' quiet regime change over the last century and their replacing the Constitutional Republic with that Administrative State, our government today has very little to do with what the Founders' envisioned. So the question for us today is will we restore the American Republic and actually have a government of, by and for the people? American Leviathan details how an empowered Executive in the White House can actually devolve and break apart the Administrative State that is the leviathan crushing the freedoms of the American people.
176 pages, Paperback
Published September 17, 2024
87 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 25, 2025
This is an excellent book that delves into the history of the Progressive Statism movement that began in the 1880s! The movement itself is based on modern historicism and totalitarianism. Historicism is the "belief that all philosophy is a product of the spirit of the time; all truth is relative to that moment in time; and all of history is a continual march from irrational to rational, a march towards progress." What better system can exist than one in which a cadre of elite intellectuals dictate policy and create laws without the annoyance of legislation or accountability? This is where we are at in the present day, and President Trump's actions in decimating entire departments in the U.S. government in the past few months are historic and long overdue.
Herbert Croly is the anointed leader of the progressive movement from the 1800s. His philosophy was embraced by none other than Teddy Roosevelt! Roosevelt believed that nobody was entitled to private property ownership unless society deemed it beneficial. Statists believe that ultimately, rights to anything come from the state. Teddy passed the Hepburn Act in 1906, which is considered to be one of the foundations of the modern day administrative state. It empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to set reasonable rates for railroads and allowed the Commission to examine their financial records.
Then along came Woodrow Wilson, who couldn't wait to add additional layers to the bureaucracy with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission. Teddy's cousin, Franklin, did his part with the New Deal and the various agencies he created. The Reorganization Act of 1939 made the administrative state a more permanent reality. The Bureau of Budget was moved into the White House where the Bureau ran the executive branch. After LBJ and the Great Society in which numerous other agencies were created, Congress gave up the will to legislate and became facilitators of the administrative state, in which they just approve the budgets for all of the various agencies who write their own laws.
Ryun states that representative democracy is over if nothing is done to reign in government agencies who are not accountable to anyone. The actions of the past three months have been promising, and the agencies are fighting like Hell to keep their power, which only proves why they should be dismantled or reorganized. Once again, excellent book!
Herbert Croly is the anointed leader of the progressive movement from the 1800s. His philosophy was embraced by none other than Teddy Roosevelt! Roosevelt believed that nobody was entitled to private property ownership unless society deemed it beneficial. Statists believe that ultimately, rights to anything come from the state. Teddy passed the Hepburn Act in 1906, which is considered to be one of the foundations of the modern day administrative state. It empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to set reasonable rates for railroads and allowed the Commission to examine their financial records.
Then along came Woodrow Wilson, who couldn't wait to add additional layers to the bureaucracy with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission. Teddy's cousin, Franklin, did his part with the New Deal and the various agencies he created. The Reorganization Act of 1939 made the administrative state a more permanent reality. The Bureau of Budget was moved into the White House where the Bureau ran the executive branch. After LBJ and the Great Society in which numerous other agencies were created, Congress gave up the will to legislate and became facilitators of the administrative state, in which they just approve the budgets for all of the various agencies who write their own laws.
Ryun states that representative democracy is over if nothing is done to reign in government agencies who are not accountable to anyone. The actions of the past three months have been promising, and the agencies are fighting like Hell to keep their power, which only proves why they should be dismantled or reorganized. Once again, excellent book!
January 14, 2025
This was a good read, but a frustrating one as the author details what he calls the “American Leviathan,” or what several people refer to as “The Swamp,” or “Deep State.” Ryun points out that the various government agencies, sub-agencies, departments, etc. now administer a budget of about $6 Trillion! Some 10 million federal employees and 20 million state employees oversee this behemoth. Ryun offers up several suggestions on how to drain the Swamp, but I’m afraid it’s just too deep to drain at this point, and could be the death of our constitutional Republic. President Trump may be our last hope…as he likes to say: “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
October 18, 2024
Essential Reading for Liberty Loving Americans
Outstanding historical summary of the roots and (now, not so secret) pernicious intentional growth of the administrative state. Creative Executive branch remedies are suggested but likely not achievable unless there is a broad conservative election mandate for at least 8 years.
Otherwise, a convention of the states will be necessary for implementing a ‘divorce’ between blue and red states.
Outstanding historical summary of the roots and (now, not so secret) pernicious intentional growth of the administrative state. Creative Executive branch remedies are suggested but likely not achievable unless there is a broad conservative election mandate for at least 8 years.
Otherwise, a convention of the states will be necessary for implementing a ‘divorce’ between blue and red states.
November 16, 2024
Drain the Swamp
An in depth review of how the deep state became firmly established contrary to the constitution which our founding fathers tried to prevent with a system of checks and balances to protect the rights of the people through limited government. Even places that teach real civics don't cover much of this. A real eye opener and must read for anyone concerned about liberty and the American way.
An in depth review of how the deep state became firmly established contrary to the constitution which our founding fathers tried to prevent with a system of checks and balances to protect the rights of the people through limited government. Even places that teach real civics don't cover much of this. A real eye opener and must read for anyone concerned about liberty and the American way.
November 24, 2024
The adminisatrative state now dominates American government. In this well researched book the author makes the case for dismantling this unconstitutional bureaucracy. He is right and this needs to happen to Make America Great Again!
March 24, 2025
Forget the nonsense about how Trump is following Project 2025. This book can tell you his agenda for his second term.
My perspective comes from several positions.
First, as a political science professor who teaches about public policy, the American political system, and security issues, I am familiar with how the system is supposed to work.
Second, I teach my classes that authoritarian governments often claim they are concentrating power for the 'good of the people.'
Third, after serving 20 years as a military officer in government, I have witnessed how consolidated and unquestioned power results in abuse, even if that is not the intent.
Which is why I classify myself as a libertarian (although not a party member).
Although strident in parts, Ryun shows how progressivism and the rise of the administrative system have perverted the idea of a constitutional republic with limited powers. The overreach of the COVID period was the natural culmination of the historical centralization of power to an unelected group of bureaucrats. Because of their 'expertise,' their decisions cannot be questioned. Critics find that the force these bureaucrats and their allies in media (including social media) will penalize and punish them.
In the last few chapters, Ryun talks about how Trump tried to reverse these trends in his first Administration and was frustrated and attacked by the mechanisms of the elite bureaucracy, even though he was nominally their boss. I wonder what he has to say about the first 100 days of the current second term.
One of the questions I ask my students usually is a variation of: ' The bureaucracies are staffed by career officers and bureaucrats who are unelected and not directly accountable to the population. Is this a problem? Many don't see this as a problem, and those who do call for more oversight until I point out that bureaucrats have the advantage of their expertise and credentials. I always include in my response Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.
"Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization." (https://themindcollection.com/pournel...)
My perspective comes from several positions.
First, as a political science professor who teaches about public policy, the American political system, and security issues, I am familiar with how the system is supposed to work.
Second, I teach my classes that authoritarian governments often claim they are concentrating power for the 'good of the people.'
Third, after serving 20 years as a military officer in government, I have witnessed how consolidated and unquestioned power results in abuse, even if that is not the intent.
Which is why I classify myself as a libertarian (although not a party member).
Although strident in parts, Ryun shows how progressivism and the rise of the administrative system have perverted the idea of a constitutional republic with limited powers. The overreach of the COVID period was the natural culmination of the historical centralization of power to an unelected group of bureaucrats. Because of their 'expertise,' their decisions cannot be questioned. Critics find that the force these bureaucrats and their allies in media (including social media) will penalize and punish them.
In the last few chapters, Ryun talks about how Trump tried to reverse these trends in his first Administration and was frustrated and attacked by the mechanisms of the elite bureaucracy, even though he was nominally their boss. I wonder what he has to say about the first 100 days of the current second term.
One of the questions I ask my students usually is a variation of: ' The bureaucracies are staffed by career officers and bureaucrats who are unelected and not directly accountable to the population. Is this a problem? Many don't see this as a problem, and those who do call for more oversight until I point out that bureaucrats have the advantage of their expertise and credentials. I always include in my response Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.
"Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization." (https://themindcollection.com/pournel...)
June 8, 2025
If you wanna read a fairy tale about the century old Deep State that makes you feel good about being an asshole…then this book is for you. Otherwise, don’t waste your time trying to understand the big conspiracy folks have made up in their heads…
American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism by Ned Ryun tries to draw correlation from various major and minor political activities and adds nefarious intent and scheming to creative a progressive boogeyman that doesn’t exist…
The author clearly did the bare minimum if research on a few key figures. He then proceeds to drastically speculate on their motives, actions, and the long term goals of the “Progressive State”.
It’s a nice little political chimera that’s responsible “the bad stuff” like free elections, voting rights, environmental protections….while also trying to stop the “good stuff” like unrelated corporations, low taxes (specifically bringing up the income tax was meant to justify lowering tariffs), an all powerful executive branch (where the judiciary and legislative branches only serve at the pleasure of the president).
It’s all quite ridiculous, and it saddens me that some folks believe it…
It serves me right during understand the psychology of these people…
DO NOT READ UNELSS YOU ARE FEELING ADVENTUROUS OR LIKE PUNISHING YOURSELF…
American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism by Ned Ryun tries to draw correlation from various major and minor political activities and adds nefarious intent and scheming to creative a progressive boogeyman that doesn’t exist…
The author clearly did the bare minimum if research on a few key figures. He then proceeds to drastically speculate on their motives, actions, and the long term goals of the “Progressive State”.
It’s a nice little political chimera that’s responsible “the bad stuff” like free elections, voting rights, environmental protections….while also trying to stop the “good stuff” like unrelated corporations, low taxes (specifically bringing up the income tax was meant to justify lowering tariffs), an all powerful executive branch (where the judiciary and legislative branches only serve at the pleasure of the president).
It’s all quite ridiculous, and it saddens me that some folks believe it…
It serves me right during understand the psychology of these people…
DO NOT READ UNELSS YOU ARE FEELING ADVENTUROUS OR LIKE PUNISHING YOURSELF…
July 28, 2025
Ryun provides a thoughtful and insightful look at the evolution of the deep state that developed along with progressive concepts. This book provides a good look at the process whereby our country developed such an enormous administrative state that believes they do not answer to either the people or their elected officials. Instead, these are supposedly the people who use their education and superior science to make the decisions for the uninformed masses and their inadequate elected officials.
January 22, 2025
Comment sense analysis
The demon that is the administrative state is exposed and made known in this wonderful book. This should be read and taught in high school. How far we as Americans have fallen by allowing the progressives to establish this as opposed to following the constitution.
The demon that is the administrative state is exposed and made known in this wonderful book. This should be read and taught in high school. How far we as Americans have fallen by allowing the progressives to establish this as opposed to following the constitution.
February 4, 2025
An absolute must read!
This book is a sobering description of what has taken place in this country over the last 100 years that has led us to the terrible state we are in. I feel this should be required reading for every high school student in this country. I only hope we can turn it around as described here.
This book is a sobering description of what has taken place in this country over the last 100 years that has led us to the terrible state we are in. I feel this should be required reading for every high school student in this country. I only hope we can turn it around as described here.
February 10, 2025
You will see here the blueprint for how Donald Trump is fixing our Republic
Timely. Shows how we got to the enormous administrative state we currently have. We didn't always have all the nonsense departments we do now. A great primer on what happened to make the administrative state and how the right president can break it apart and return us to a full representative Republic.
Timely. Shows how we got to the enormous administrative state we currently have. We didn't always have all the nonsense departments we do now. A great primer on what happened to make the administrative state and how the right president can break it apart and return us to a full representative Republic.
March 19, 2025
A bit too short
I like Ned Ryun, but I was expecting something with a little more depth and weight. If you are new to this fight, this book is a good primer, but he lacks a lot of additional detail to back up his case. A good quick read though.
I like Ned Ryun, but I was expecting something with a little more depth and weight. If you are new to this fight, this book is a good primer, but he lacks a lot of additional detail to back up his case. A good quick read though.
June 18, 2025
A very insightful and interesting read!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews