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

A book of hope for “We the People”

In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good, proposing practical ways to bridge our political divides. In this intensely personal as well as political book, Palmer explores five “habits of the heart” that can be developed in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to help restore a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”:

• An understanding that we are all in this together
• An appreciation of the value of “otherness”
• An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways
• A sense of personal voice and agency
• A capacity to create community

This book—enriched by a Discussion Guide and online video interviews with the author—is an eloquent and empowering call for “We the People” to reclaim our unity in an era of divide and conquer politics. Democracy & Education called it “one of the most important books of the early 21st Century.” Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, said “This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it.”

“We have been trying to bridge the great divides in this great country for a long time. Parker J. Palmer urges us to ‘keep on walking, keep on talking’—just as we did in the civil rights movement—until we cross those bridges together.” —U.S. Congressman John Lewis, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom