An urgent and eloquent call to resist authoritarianism in America.

Our Constitution is the glory of the United States, the protector of our civil liberties and a careful system of checks and balances that safeguard our freedom from tyranny. But as Naomi Wolf shows in this stunning and deeply researched indictment of the Bush administration and Congress, the Constitution and all it stands for is under threat as never before—from the government itself.

Wolf grounds her argument in a deep reading of 20th-century history and lays out how the developments of the Bush years—an open-ended war, the demonization of a vague enemy, the rise of corporate paramilitary groups, the use of torture and domestic surveillance, among other grim innovations—parallel steps taken in the early years of the last century's worst dictatorships, especially in Italy and Germany. Taken together, these steps amount to a blueprint for shutting down an open society, and the points of similarity are as shocking as they are consistent, right down to precise verbal echoes. ("Homeland security," anyone?)

Far from a partisan work, the book cuts across political parties and ideologies and speaks directly to those among us—true patriots—who are concerned about the deliberate rollback of freedom in America.

Wolf warns that the authoritarian project is far enough along that in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack our remaining liberties may be squashed in one go. Writing with urgency and clarity in the tradition of Thomas Paine's revolutionary pamphlets, she calls us to wake up to what's happening in the United States and stand up for true American values, so that our children may enjoy the freedoms we have taken (perhaps too much) for granted.

Naomi Wolf is the author of many books, including Give Me Liberty and the international bestseller The Beauty Myth. She is also the cofounder and president of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. She lives in New York City.