The United States of America was, as Lincoln famously said, “conceived in liberty,” but in less than two centuries a different lodestar became fixed in the cultural firmament: the principle of democracy. The move from Liberty to Democracy was a seismic shift in the political landscape, with profound implications for virtually every area of public life. In Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History, public choice economist Randall G. Holcombe tells the story of this remarkable transformation—and the often-ignored threat it poses to individual rights and the constitutional ethos that seeks to limit the immense power wielded by governments.