Thomas Block is a patriot pained by our nation’s falling short of the noble aims for which we strive. His last nonfiction work, A Fatal Addiction: War in the Name of God (Algora 2012), examined how the United States, one of the most religious countries in the world, could also be the most violent. A writer and artist as well, Tom has several nonfiction books, a trilogy of plays, and a series of paintings in the works.

Reflecting the richness of thought and depth of perspective found in Tom's books and other works, he has been an invited participant in the Jiwar Artist Residency in Barcelona, Spain, and in 2013 he was invited to give an interview with Steven Appel for the Queens College Center for Ethnic, Racial & Religious Understanding in New York.

In this disturbing, erudite and highly readable book by author, playwright and artist Tom Block, America is shown to be a surprising example of Machiavellian politics, utilizing all of the post-modern methods of information distribution and...

In this disturbing, erudite and highly readable book by author, playwright and artist Tom Block, America is shown to be a surprising example of Machiavellian politics, utilizing all of the post-modern methods of information distribution and "legal" fraud and corruption. Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission (2010) and the Super PACs it spawned, the massive amounts of money ("power's master key"), the intermingling of the language of religion and war, and the 90% negative advertising of the 2012 Presidential campaign (channeling Machiavelli's dictum that the adversary must be "assassinated," though in contemporary America by character assassinating) and even Barack Obama's Machiavellian machinations are looked at in light of the Renaissance political philosopher's ideas. The final sections look for and find an antidote. Chapter Four (The Threshold of a New Era) explores the specific reasons that we might hope that the citizenry can wrest the public square from its amoral, bottomless Machiavellian pit. Morality can become the center of public interaction ' even in the bloody 20th century, prophet activists such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela were able to change the course of history for the better, centering their political movements not in Machiavelli's ideas but in ethical behavior working for the common good.