The Republic of Ghosts

By Avery Sloane

What if the dead came back not to haunt us, but to remind us who we promised to be?

In a time of national fracture and moral exhaustion, the voices of America's past begin to rise - not as specters of nostalgia, but as ghosts of accountability.

They do not moan.
They testify.

Sojourner Truth walks through protests with her back unbowed.
Abraham Lincoln stares down modern tyranny with quiet grief.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks softly - but the law trembles when she does.
Woody Guthrie picks up his guitar. Johnny Cash buttons his black coat.
Thurgood Marshall, John Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fred Korematsu-
they are all here.
Not to save us.
To stand with us.

The Republic of Ghosts is a sweeping chorus of poetic resurrections - a visionary collection that blends historical witness with lyrical urgency. Written in searing, intimate verse, this book summons dozens of American figures from every era: revolutionaries and reformers, prophets and politicians, writers and warriors. Each ghost speaks in their own voice, shaped by legacy and time some with fury, some with sorrow, all with purpose.

They come from the Capitol and the cotton fields, from war zones and prison cells, from protest marches and Senate floors. Some are presidents. Some are poets. Some are the forgotten who refused to be erased.

Together, they form a phantom Congress - a last, desperate gathering of those who dared to believe in America's promise, and now rise to ask:
What have you done with it?

This is not a history book.
It is an invocation.
A confrontation.
A love letter written in fire.
It does not ask you to be comfortable.
It asks you to be honest.

With a final section of concise biographical tributes and the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, The Republic of Ghosts becomes more than poetry - it becomes a civic reckoning.

For readers of Claudia Rankine, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood, and Hamilton fans hungry for truth without the music, this collection offers a stunning, singular reading experience: reverent and defiant, historical and immediate, haunted and alive.

They cannot promise you justice.
They cannot promise you peace.
But they will not let you forget what was promised.
And they will not leave you alone in the fight.

The ghosts are watching.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F8R6JBJZ
• ISBN13: 9798283971513
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 8.0"