Broken:  Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country.  In his second book published in 2018, Ira Shapiro states the crisis of American democracy started long before Trump became president. Our government has been failing for a very long time, and the Senate has been ground zero for that failure.  Partisanship has made the Senate dysfunctional — unable to find common ground on vital issues of the day.  In Broken, the author offers an expert’s account of some of the most prominent battles of the past decade and describes what must be done to restore the Senate’s important position as a guardian of democracy against possible threats from authoritarian leadership and a polarized environment.

The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis, Ira Shapiro’s first book, was published in February 2012 by PublicAffairs.  The author tells a rich story of the prodigious accomplishments in domestic and foreign policy during the challenging years of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and brings to life the extraordinary senators of the period and their willingness to have the Senate function as our founding fathers intended.