In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us By StephenMacedo and FrancesLee, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025. 373 pp. $20.97 (ebook)

ABSTRACT In their timely and provocative book, Macedo and Lee present a compelling analysis of the COVID‐19 era, arguing that the American response was not merely a public health challenge but a profound political failure. They contend that the crisis exposed a dangerous erosion of deliberative democratic norms, fueled by an overreliance on executive power under conditions of intense fear and uncertainty. By blending normative political theory with an empirical analysis of U.S. crisis decision‐making, the authors offer a novel and critical perspective on pandemic governance.