It was mankind's greatest achievement.
It was mankind's biggest boondoggle.
A city on Mars, often dismissed as just a U.S. government make-work project. "Hey, it creates jobs." It was also a dumping ground for all sorts of radicals who no longer wanted to live in the U.S. or even on Earth. But these inhabitants have revolted, declaring themselves the Republic of Wherewithal, and they plan to write their own constitution. These former Americans are a potential public relations disaster for the U.S. because America's 300th birthday is around the corner and America wants to reassert itself on the world stage (the U.S. hasn't been the global police ... correction: global leader for some time). In effect, the very act of former Americans drafting their own constitution for a new nation is to put the United States on trial in front of the Earth.
Enter Tom Waverly, public intellectual and defender of America. Recruited by Psychological Operations Division of U.S. Intelligence, his mission is to impress upon the citizens of the Wherewithal Republic the errors of their ways and hopefully prevent that constitution from being written. He must use all the wit and intellect at his disposal in a war of ideas (just don't call him a troll). After all, it is not just the nature of America and what it means to be an American that is at stake but the very nature of freedom, of democracy, of government, and even civilization, as well as the nature of work-of having a job. Will the United States ever unleash the full force of technology, freeing its people from toil or will it forever shackle its citizens to an outmoded work ethic?
Boondoggle Republic is a novel full of thought-provoking ideas and satirical jabs that take aim at all things American. It is the novel of America and Americans: past, present, and possible future.