Praise for Crisis of the Common Good:

"Murphy draws on the work of philosophers, social scientists, health researchers, and his own reporting and personal experiences [identifying] six “cults” that he believes represent the greatest threat to an America he once knew. Murphy is not the first politician to identify a country in a moral crisis. Jimmy Carter [spoke] about it in 1979 . . . [and] the parallels between Carter’s speech and Murphy’s book are clear: Both are reckonings with an undercurrent of anger, sadness, and missing hope. Both look to an idealized version of our past and speak to the need for renewal of purpose. Both respond to a nation in turmoil, rather than recede to comfortable terrain in Washington"
—David Dayen, The American Prospect

“For those who worry that Democrats lack vision, Chris Murphy’s book comes as a welcome relief. His call for economic populism combined with civic and spiritual renewal points to a common good beyond the toxic politics of our time. Empowering workers, reining in corporate power, unrigging the system, reweaving the moral fabric of communities—this is an agenda that could realign our politics and rejuvenate the project of self-government.”
—Michael J. Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?

“Crisis of the Common Good offers an urgent and compelling diagnosis of the major ills plaguing our country at this critical juncture, as we face widespread economic precarity and deep distrust in democracy. Senator Chris Murphy brilliantly traces these problems to policy choices that have persistently favored concentrated economic power, with huge material and spiritual costs for a vast majority of Americans. Modeling both a deep understanding of how we got here and a principled set of directions for how we get out, this book is essential reading for these troubling times.”
—Lina Khan, former Chair of the United States Federal Trade Commission

“Working in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan tradition of the thinker-legislator, Chris Murphy has stepped back from the maelstrom of the Senate and this moment to grapple with where America went wrong spiritually to get into such a state. He digs beneath the political watchwords of ‘authoritarianism’” and ‘inequality,’ into the substrate of our emotional inner life as a people. He writes of the forces that have cut into the dance of our civic relationships, how they have altered our experience of being citizens and being human. He has come up for air from this study with a deeper understanding of Trump’s appeal than most Democrats possess. And this book brims with ideas for healing the diseased body politic on which Trumpism is a mere boil. Not all lawmakers think. He does. Read him.”
—Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All and The Persuaders

“Chris Murphy is a visionary leader who refuses the easy cynicism of our age. He does more than diagnose our national crisis—he offers bold, practical solutions and a unifying vision of who we can become together. Murphy unflinchingly confronts our deepest fractures while summoning us toward repair, redemption, and a richer sense of belonging. Crisis of the Common Good is both a policy blueprint and a moral call to action; it is both an urgent, solution-driven prescription and an uplifting civic sermon.”
—Cory Booker, United States senator