Just how much trouble is the United States really in? And is the same degree of trouble common to the rest of Western democracy? A stream of editorials, essays, and full-length books suggests that things are very bad indeed. Of course, it’s a fool’s game to try to predict the future, but it’s also what historians do, and it is part of our history to know that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. What we can see in the present is a very high level of anxiety about divisions and discordance on a national and international scale.