On Sale: Apr 21, 2026
Page Count: 352 pages
Publisher: Center Street
ISBN-13: 9781546011293

$32.00

$42.00 CAD

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From a New York Times bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes a bold reinterpretation of American history—just in time for the country’s 250th birthday.

Whether it’s 1776 or the era of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Arthur Herman argues that the United States has always been propelled forward by a special kind of leader: the founder.

More than just business creators, founders are visionaries—risk-takers, builders, rebels—who reinvent America in times of crisis and stagnation. From Washington and Lincoln to Edison, Ford, Elon Musk, and even political disruptors like Martin Luther King and Donald Trump, this book reveals how their relentless drive, bold vision, and refusal to accept a stagnant status quo have reshaped America time and again.

Herman introduces a compelling framework: the constant battle between founders and the managers who inevitably take over their achievements and enterprises. As our own history shows, those successors often institutionalize, but can also stifle, innovation and meaningful change—until a new generation of founders and disruptors surges forward to renew and reinvent based on first principles, whether it’s a business, an institution, or America itself.

In a contemporary twist, The Founder’s Fire even shows how current cultural touchstones like Shark Tank reflect the enduring appeal of the founder mindset stretching back to 1776 and rolling on through the rich pageantry of American history until today.

Insightful, provocative, and deeply relevant, this is a sweeping history that helps us understand America’s past, present, and its future. In its pages readers will discover the soul of America as the founder nation: and perhaps learn something about themselves in the process.

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Arthur Herman

About the Author

ARTHUR HERMAN, Ph.D, is Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas-Austin.

He brings thirty-five years of experience as Pulitzer Prize Finalist historian and biographer, New York Times bestselling author, defense and tech policy analyst, and national security official.

He is the author of ten books, including the New York Time/Washington Post bestseller How the Scots Invented the Modern World; the Pulitzer Prize Finalist Gandhi and Churchill; and Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, which The Economist named one of the Best Books of 2012 and which has been on the recommended reading list of Secretaries of Defense, Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, key members of Congress, and across the defense industry, since its publication.

Two of his books, The Cave and The Light: Plato, Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization (2013) and 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder (2017), have been finalists for Conservative Book of the Year at the prestigious Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

His biography of Douglas MacArthur, Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior, and his most recent work, The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the World, were Amazon’s picks for Best History in 2016 and 2021.

He has served on the National Security Council in the first Trump administration as Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor (2020-21), and was Senior Technical Writer for the Congressionally appointed Commission on Pentagon budget reform (2022-24).

His writings on the defense industry and defense technology have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Foreign Affairs, National Interest, National Review, Real Clear Defense, and American Affairs Journal.

Dr. Herman is also co-founder and former Director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative, which published multiple reports on quantum computing and quantum cryptography. As Director he shaped legislation creating the National Quantum Initiative, and helped set global technical standards in the quantum sector. In 2019 he also addressed the National Assembly of Korea in Seoul on the future of quantum technology.

His writings on quantum, AI, and other advanced technologies are featured regularly at the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, National Review, The Hill, forbes.com,, Quantum Insider, and the Korea Business Herald.

Born and raised in Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in history from the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Herman and his wife Beth, an essayist and school docent at the National Gallery of Art, live in the Washington DC area.

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