Abstract
The central argument of Fragile Democracy: A Critical Introduction to American Government is that democracy in the United States is today more of a question than a given. American democracy has become a precarious enterprise. This text is organized similarly to most American government texts. It considers the Revolutionary War and the Constitution, Federalism and the separation of powers, civil liberties and civil rights, the major branches of the federal government, the key political institutions that connect state and society in the U.S., and the major domestic and foreign policies in the United States. But it does so in such a way as to underscore the fragility of the current political order.
