Reviews
The Father of Modern Voting By John Reardon June 1, 2011		I'd never heard of William Robinson Boothby (1829 - 1903) until I started reading some months ago John Keane's widely and rightly acclaimed book The Life and Death of Democracy. (Full Review here)
The Subject of Democracy is Full of Enigmas By J. Cameron-Smith February 14, 2011		This book is an interesting, illuminating and entertaining look at democracy. It's also a sizeable read: at just under 1000 pages. (Full Review here)
Quadrant online April 3, 2011		John Keane, a historian at the University of Sydney, has attempted an ambitious history of democracy called The Life and Death of Democracy. As Keane notes in the book, few have attempted this feat before him. His is a veritable attempt. (Full Review here)
CESRAN 09 February 2011		The intention of this work is to explain theoretically that democracy logically exists in China, despite the statements to the contrary by China’s ruling party. We will have to look at several recent development in social and political theory to fully understand my point. (Full review here)
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences December 2010		After more than 10 years of hard work, Professor Keane successfully helps his readers to extend their understanding of democracy from its origins in the ancient world of Syria-Mesopotamia to the present-day world. (Full review here)
Kirkus Reviews 25 May 2009		A distinguished political scientist takes a broad view of democracy, speculating on both the lineage and the prospects of a cherished doctrine. (Full review here)
The Times 27 May 2009		Political scandal, public outrage, celebrity activism - as the current storm rages around Westminster, David Aaronovitch welcomes a book that explains how we got here and what the future may hold. 'I had been as confused as any other observer about these events' - writes Aaronovitch - 'thrashing around attempting to catch their meaning - and then I read John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy' (Full review here)
The Telegraph 31 May 2009		Despite the onwards and upwards approach taken by Kohn Keane in his Life and Death of Democracy, our own system is proof that the story of democracy still has a long way to go, says Noel Malcolm (Full review here)
The Sunday Times June 7, 2009		'In John Keane's global history of democracy' writes Dominic Sandbrook, 'Britain plays only a supporting role, with an index entry far smaller than India's and hardly bigger than Brazil's' Continue reading here
The Observer June 7, 2009		'Though it is often difficult to know what democracy really means, it has never been hard to say where it started, or when: it all began in Athens about 2,500 years ago. Right? Wrong, according to John Keane, who thinks that our taste for these sorts of founding myths is a large part of why we are so confused about what democracy is and how it works'. From David Runciman's review appeared on The Observer on 7 June 2009. Read full review here
Literary Review June 2009		Ben Wilson reviews The Life and Death of Democracy in the June issue of the Literary Review, pp. 36-38. Download it here
Alquds Alarabi June 2009		A book review by Ibrahim Darwish Original text in arab here English summary: The importance of Keane's book stems from the democratic methodology he adopts in investigating the history of democracy. He goes beyond the presumption that links the rise of democracy with Athens and the West.
The Guardian June 2009		Review by John Kampfner - It appeared in the Guardian on Saturday 20 June 2009 on p8 'The other day, as I was waiting to meet someone in the House of Commons, an old-school MP accosted me. "Isn't it terrible, all that's going on?" His implication was that the expenses scandal had unjustly dragged this venerable institution into the mud. "No, it isn't," I replied. "It's marvellous. (Read more)
Financial Times June 2009		Review by Sunil Khilnani - Published: June 20 2009 'The story of democracy is replete with surprising disappointments and triumphs. Witness in recent weeks the collapse of the moral authority of the “mother of all parliaments” in the UK in a scatter of expense claims. Meanwhile, in India, that land of democratic improbabilities, nearly half a billion people – most of them illiterate – voted to install a stable, progressive government. Who would have thought it?' (Read more)
Publishers Weekly June, 22, 2009		[The Life and Death of Democracy's] broad sweep, wealth of detailed knowledge, shrewd insights and fluent, lively prose make it a must-read for scholars and citizens alike (Read more)
The First Post June, 23 2009		Non-fiction: A general history of democracy by John Keane which set out to "democratise the history of democracy" (Read more)
The Times 27 June 2009		The Life and Death is among the best history books for 'your holiday reading',according to the Times. The London paper calls the book 'the publishing event of the summer'.(Read more)
From Spain		The book has been mentioned in the Spanish press even though a Spanish translation of the Life and Death of Democracy is not yet available: NFORMACION.ES quotes a newspaper of the Province of Alicante: 'The Cortes of Leon represented "a qualitative jump", states John Keane in his book The Life and Death of Democracy, which was written to challenge a series of entrenched ideas about democracy.' The Diario de León writes “This is a timely recognition, as León is preparing to celebrate next year the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom” read more here
Camden New Journal 23 July 2009		Explosive impact of a bout of jealousy? John Keane’s new book tells the story of democracy – from the racy myth of its origins in Ancient Greece to the shifting model of the post-war world order, writes Dan Carrier (read the full review here)
Courier Mail Brisbane, 1 August 2009		AUSTRALIA'S big gift to democracy was the secret ballot - conceived in Victoria after the Eureka uprising of 1854 but first used in the neighbouring colony of South Australia in 1858 when "voters dropped their marked and folded ballot paper into a large, oblong, padlocked box (continue reading)
The Monthly n. 48, August 2009 Melbourne.		By Tim Soutphommasane It has been a mixed year so far for democracy. [...] For anyone seeking some guidance on how to make sense of all this, John Keane’s The Life and Death of Democracy will seem rather timely (read full review here and John Keane's reply here)
The Guardian 3 August 2009		The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane is on the Summer reading for radicals of the Guardian. Read review here
The Canberra Times 22 August 2009		If democracies and their defenders, are "sleepwalking their way into deep trouble", John Keane's latest tome, The Life and Death of Democracy, delivers the kind of slap that should rouse even the most comatose of them.' writes Brenton Holmes in the Canberra Times 'Or more likely, it would concuss them. Coming in at just under a thousand pages, it is not a book for the faint-hearted. Nor is it a book to be shelved until one has a month free to wade through it. ' Read full review here
History Book Club August 2009		Review by Sanford Levinson: John Keane has written an astounding, truly audacious, book. Indeed, it may be the first attempt at a comprehensive survey of “democracy” in well over a century. To describe it as “comprehensive” is no idle gesture. One reason for its 1000-page length is that he has illuminating discussions of societies ranging across time and space from the ancient Near East and Athens (continue reading here)
BBC Persian Website Farsi language August 2009		Mohammad Poor, Daryoush. "John Keane; Strange Origins of Democracy." BBC Persian, 12 Aug. 2009. Read it here
The Daily Beast August 2009		John Keane's book features among the books reccomended by the Daily Beast, the news reporting and opinion website published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Read here the review
Social Europe Journal August 2009		From Stephen Barber's review: This is an extraordinary book which tells us almost as much about the future of our democracy as it does about the past and the present. It shows us how fragile is democracy and reminds us that, despite its recent shortcomings, we rather like democracy and rather take it for granted. (read full review here)
Mediate.com and the Consensus Building Approach's blog September 2009		Review by Larry Susskind, CBI and Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vice-Chair for Instruction at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School I'm trying to make my way through John Keane's massive book, The Life and Death of Democracy (Norton, 2009). He reviews three "epochs" in the evolution of democracy ....READ FULL REVIEW
Tendance Coatesy 16 Sept. 2009		John Keane’s The Life and Death of Democracy (2009) is a thick tome. I did not expect the theorist (here) of ‘civil society’ as the site of social progress to be sympathetic reading. But, in contrast to many of the books I’ve been looking at when writing recently I thought it would be stimulating, interesting, and well-argued (add usual adjectives for someone you don’t really agree with). Besides I’ve a soft spot for anyone who annoys the Iranian theocrats (read full review here)
The Age on 8 august 2009		Th reviewer writes This ambitious study charts the rise of a political system and ponders its future. A product of a decade of research and writing, this is a work of enduring importance. (read full review here)
The National 15 October 2009		John Keane’s new history shows that democracy is not a uniquely western invention. But this important revision, John Gray argues, does not add up to an argument for its necessity (read full review here)
Australian Book Review November 2009		"How does one review a serious academic study of 950 pages that covers two thousand years of political history? In this case" writes Dennis Altman "I shall be upfront and declare that I am only reviewing part of Keane’s thesis, and will leave it to historians to discuss the remainder of his book. If I concentrate on the last 300 pages, this is because they contain more than enough material for even the keenest reader, let alone a harassed reviewer." (read full review here)
Tribune Magazine 12 November 2009		Is something rotten with the state of democracy today? Time, perhaps, to raise a third cheer…Keane's book is timely as the scandal of MPs’ expenses this summer has led to one of democracy’s near death experiences. (read full review here)
The Internet Review of Books Vol. 3, num.2 Nov. 2009		We need a new paradigm. In pointing this out, Keane does us all a service... says George O’Har. read full review here
Muhlberger's Early History 18 Dec. 2009		Steven Muhlberger , Professor of History, Nipissing University, writes in his blog: I say with no condescension whatsoever that this book should be on the shelves of high school and university libraries or anywhere else younger readers can find it and become entranced by the size, variety and importance of the subject... READ FULL REVIEW HERE
International Affairs March 2010		Governance, civil society and cultural politics a review of the Life and Death of Democracy by Christopher Hobson (University of Aberystwyth, UK) and published in International Affairs 86: 2, 2010, pp. 15-16. READ FULL REVIEW HERE
The National Interest 23 February 2010		Democracy & Its Discontents a review of The Life and Death of Democracy published by John Dunn (Cambridge University) inThe National Interest - read it here. READ:John Keane’s response to John Dunn’s review of The Life and Death of Democracy, and John Dunn's response to Keane