A. Todd Franklin, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Philosophy & Africana Studies, has published a review of Michael J. Illuzzi’s Mending the Nation: Reclaiming “We the People” in a Populist Age (University Press of Kansas, 2025) in Political Theory, the leading forum for the development and exchange of political ideas. The review appeared online on October 9, 2026, ahead of its print publication.
In Mending the Nation, Illuzzi argues that prophetic stories of peoplehood can counter authoritarian populism where democratic theory's usual responses fail. These are inclusive narratives that draw on nation, faith, and history. Franklin praises the book as “a revisionist history of political thought whose payoff is prospective as much as retrospective.”
Posted October 20, 2026
