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America Agonistes: America’s 250th and the Restoration of a Nation in Conflict with Itself and Its Past
AMERICA’S 250th ANNIVERSARY
Is the Republic headed for redemption and renewal—or ruin?
Across the ages, the decline and fall of nations and civilizations has left behind only ruins and vanished glories. Free societies are rare. Lasting free societies are rarer still. So, what are the prospects for the American republic at the 250th anniversary of the revolution? Is America approaching its expiration date? What does it mean that seismic cultural conflicts, global tensions, and ideological polarizations over the last half century have left Americans torn over their identity, gaslit because of their history, and uncertain as to their role as the world’s lead society in a turbulent and increasingly authoritarian era?
In America Agonistes, Os Guinness delivers a foreign admirer’s searching examination of the deepening crisis of the great American experiment in freedom. Following on from Our Civilizational Moment, this book is the second of a quartet of studies on the crisis of America and the West. With clarity and conviction, Guinness charts the forces—moral, cultural, political—that are tearing the nation apart. Yet he is no prophet of doom. To make America great again means knowing what made America great in the first place. It means knowing how America’s Jewish and Christian roots have established a way of ordered freedom like no other. It means knowing the secret to renewing the republic in our time.
This is a book for every American citizen who believes in freedom, and for anyone of whatever nation around the world who desires to strive towards a free world alliance and a human-friendly future.
Is the Republic headed for redemption and renewal—or ruin?
Across the ages, the decline and fall of nations and civilizations has left behind only ruins and vanished glories. Free societies are rare. Lasting free societies are rarer still. So, what are the prospects for the American republic at the 250th anniversary of the revolution? Is America approaching its expiration date? What does it mean that seismic cultural conflicts, global tensions, and ideological polarizations over the last half century have left Americans torn over their identity, gaslit because of their history, and uncertain as to their role as the world’s lead society in a turbulent and increasingly authoritarian era?
In America Agonistes, Os Guinness delivers a foreign admirer’s searching examination of the deepening crisis of the great American experiment in freedom. Following on from Our Civilizational Moment, this book is the second of a quartet of studies on the crisis of America and the West. With clarity and conviction, Guinness charts the forces—moral, cultural, political—that are tearing the nation apart. Yet he is no prophet of doom. To make America great again means knowing what made America great in the first place. It means knowing how America’s Jewish and Christian roots have established a way of ordered freedom like no other. It means knowing the secret to renewing the republic in our time.
This is a book for every American citizen who believes in freedom, and for anyone of whatever nation around the world who desires to strive towards a free world alliance and a human-friendly future.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2025
About the author
Os Guinness
98 books368 followersOs Guinness (D.Phil., Oxford) is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, including The American Hour, Time for Truth and The Case for Civility. A frequent speaker and prominent social critic, he was the founder of the Trinity Forum and has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies. He lives near Washington, D.C.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 19, 2026
An important book to read to give us clarity about our civilizational moment.
July 21, 2026
very disappointing
I am a Christian and a conservative. I first discovered Os on a panel with Jordan Peterson. I celebrated what he contributed to that conversation. But this book is abysmal. It is repetitive. Is doesn’t understand the US or President Trump. I wasting my time on this book
I am a Christian and a conservative. I first discovered Os on a panel with Jordan Peterson. I celebrated what he contributed to that conversation. But this book is abysmal. It is repetitive. Is doesn’t understand the US or President Trump. I wasting my time on this book
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews