The Battle for Democracy ~ Hardback ~ Anna Faktorovich

The events depicted incorporate historical incidents to create an alternate history of a violent anti-corruption rebellion in the fictional town of Sparta, Tennessee, in the aftermath of World War II. It is based in part on the rebellion by veterans against the Mayor's office in Athens, Tennessee, as well as on the Chicago Haymarket Riot. In Sparta, thousands of veterans return to the States from the War, and are confronted by crippling corruption, as they attempt to drink away the trauma of the War. Faced with bribes and a heap of misdemeanor tickets, the GIs try to retaliate by aggressively supporting the Democratic ticket, but soon discover that elections are not won by voters in Sparta. The Sheriff and his army of untrained deputies go on a killing spree, as they work to steal the election, until the Democrats are compelled to pick up arms to defend their lives and their civil rights. "An intriguing and often funny depiction of widespread governmental corruption in a mid-1940s southern city and the political efforts of a band of World War II veterans and their allies to address it." -Jere Krakoff, retired civil rights attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project in Washington, D.C. "Anna Faktorovich's historical novel "The Battle for Democracy" illuminates a little-known but highly representative incident in American labor history-the battle of returning World War II veterans against the corrupt political machinery of Athens, Tennessee. A timely reminder that the greatest threats to democracy come not from abroad but from our homegrown ideologues and zealots, whether of party, creed, or avarice." -Robert Begiebing, founding director of the Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction, and Professor of English Emeritus at Southern New Hampshire University Anna Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of the Anaphora Literary Press. She taught college English for three years before focusing entirely on publishing. She has a PhD in English Literature. She published two scholarly books: "Rebellion as Genre in the Novels of Scott, Dickens and Stevenson" (McFarland, 2013) and "The Formulas of Popular Fiction: Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Religious and Mystery Novels" (McFarland, 2014). She published two additional scholarly books with Anaphora: "Gender Bias in Mystery and Romance Novel Publishing: Mimicking Masculinity and Femininity" and "Wendell Berry's New Agrarianism and Beyond." She also published two poetry collections "Improvisational Arguments" (Fomite Press, 2011) and "Battle for Athens" (Anaphora, 2012), an illustrated children's book, "The Sloths and I" (Anaphora, 2013) and two novellas, "The Great Love of Queen Margaret, the Vampire" and "Campaigns Against the Olden" (Grim's Labyrinth Publishing). She won the MLA Bibliography, Kentucky Historical Society and the Brown University research fellowships.