Evens Foundation

📚 Adventures in Democracy treats democracy less as a system to be described than as a practice to be understood.

Benner moves through history and finds it under pressure — in moments of crisis, bad faith, and difficult decisions. The stories she chooses aren't the triumphant ones, but they expose what democracy has actually required of people, not in theory, but in practice, under pressure and pushed to make a decision.

As you read, think about what democracy asks? And of whom? 💡

📚 Before we get into arguments and history, Erica Benner starts with a question that's harder than it sounds:

What do we actually mean when we say "democracy"?

Not the textbook answer. The one we reach for instinctively when we feel something is undemocratic, or when we defend something because it is.

As you begin reading, notice which assumptions you're bringing with you.

What does democracy feel like to you, before the book has a chance to complicate it?