jerry hamrick

I spent years, 2004-2018, researching and writing my own book on how our systems of government and economics could be modified to take advantage of the wonderful ideas that formed the foundation of Athenian democracy. Out of dozens of books Cartledge's was for me the best, perhaps because it was the most recent, but mostly because he squarely faces the misunderstandings that the Framers had about how democracy, real democracy, must work. The Framers got democracy wrong and we have suffered because of their error. As a consequence most Americans have a complete misunderstanding of the differences between our republic and a real democracy.