Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices - teachers can’t maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candour, schools ban the game of tag and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: ‘Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller’. Philip K. Howard’s urgent and elegant argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess and he lays out the basic shift in approach needed to fix it. Today Americans are flooded with rules and legal threats that prevent them from taking responsibility and using common sense. Howard argues that it is necessary to rebuild boundaries of law that affirmatively protect an open field of freedom. The analysis is powerful and the solution unavoidable. What’s at stake, Howard explains, is the vitality of American culture.