Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit

"He bravely takes on the current political climate, and this book provides therapy for the American body politic. His insights are heart-deep: America gains by living with tension and differences; we can help reclaim public life by actions as simple as walking down the street instead of driving. Hope's hardly cheap, but history is made up of what Palmer calls 'a million invisible acts of courage and the incremental gains that came with them.' This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it." (Publishers Weekly, 8 August 2011)

"Healing the Heart of Democracy is a hopeful book that lifts up and hallows the heart as a source of inner sight. Inspired by the efforts to understand and undergird democracy by Abraham Lincoln, Alexis de Tocqueville, Rosa Parks, and others; the author sends us on our way rejoicing with the small portion of hope that he has planted in our minds and souls." (Spirituality & Practice)

"There is a deep and disturbing cloud hanging over the United States. It is a malaise that is leading to cynicism and self-centeredness. The antidote is to be found in the healing of the heart of our democracy, so that we might emerge from this private focus to a public one, which recognizes our interdependence. I know of no better guide to discerning the problem and the solutions, than this book by Parker Palmer. It is a prophetic book, one that needs to be taken with all due seriousness, if we are to emerge from our malaise stronger and healthier than before." (Englewood Review of Books, 2011)

"[Palmer] has been constantly on the move intellectually and spiritually, a kind of Socratic gadfly in American life... [His] politics is not the politics of despair or...of inevitable progress, but...of people trying to live better lives as they attempt to work together for a better society." (Christian Century)

"I recommend this book to absolutely everyone–on any side of the political spectrum, and especially to folks like me, who were standing aside, wringing their hands and wishing for a better democracy." (Beliefnet.com)

"If you're looking for a way to reclaim the best of democracy to shape our nation's future, this is a book worth spending some time with." (The Cap Times)