Book Reveal
What would it look like to gather the seven Founding Fathers—Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Jefferson, and Adams—into a single room at the moment the Constitution was ratified?
It never happened, of course. Jefferson was in France. Adams was in Britain. But the tension between these men’s ideals—some shared, some conflicting—shaped a government that would elevate liberty while withholding it from the majority.
This cover art, which I designed using Leonardo AI™ and Canva™, imagines that impossible moment. James Madison stands in quiet contemplation, having re-entered the room. The others await his decision. Would he amend the document to include a Bill of Rights? Would the compromise be enough? Would it ever be?
About the Work
This book is the result of months of research, reflection, and reckoning. As a white male veteran, I do not claim the embodied experience of the enslaved, the dispossessed, or the marginalized. But I write with deep empathy and a determination to confront the systems that silenced them, starting with the Constitution itself.
American Democracy Through the Looking Glass explores a founding built on stolen land and stolen labor. It asks: What kind of democracy grows from soil so unevenly fertile? Why do we celebrate ideals we have never fully realized? And as we approach America’s 250th anniversary, what would true remembrance, and redress, look like?
Coming Soon.
In print and digital editions.
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