Giving Up Is Unforgivable

A former federal prosecutor's first book, turning years of public legal explanation into a sustained case for staying in the fight. Vance sets the present strain on American institutions in legal and historical context and then does the harder thing: she tells the reader what to actually do about it, small and large, against the pull of despair. Subtitled a manual for keeping a democracy, and it means the word manual. Clear-eyed about the danger, and squarely aimed at action.

A former United States Attorney and law professor whose first book turned years of public legal explanation into a sustained argument. Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy sets the present strain on American institutions in legal and historical context, and makes the case for sustained citizen engagement. She writes the law and the courts for a general reader, plainly, and toward action.