Republic Without A President, and Other Stories

Written in the 1890s, when American democracy was grappling with industrial barons, political machines, and the rising tide of populism, Herbert Ward turns his gaze forward in these sharp political speculations. The title story imagines a Republic without a president: a nation at a crossroads, confronting what happens when the highest office vanishes and the machinery of government must answer unanswerable questions. These are not distant utopias but uncomfortable mirrors held up to the Gilded Age's anxieties about power, corruption, and whether democracy can survive its own contradictions. Ward writes with the urgency of a man watching his country transform into something unrecognizable, and wonders if anyone will notice until it's too late. For readers who savor the strange foresight of early science fiction, when authors used tomorrow to diagnose today, these stories offer a fascinating window into late-Victorian fears about republics, presidents, and the fragility of self-governance.