A novel that changes the conversation — and the reader.
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
-- James Madison, The Federalist No. 51
Praise for The Lion’s Den
“Every generation of Americans must answer a simple but consequential question: what does it take to keep a free nation free? The answer has never been found in government alone. It is found in the character of the American people. That enduring truth lies at the heart of Frank B. Atkinson’s The Lion’s Den.
I trust you will find in Danny’s story both inspiration and conviction. Inspiration to believe that renewal is possible. Conviction to play your part in it.”
From the Foreword by Former Vice President Mike Pence
“The Lion’s Den is essential reading… a powerfully uplifting story and a summons to get to work on restoring the ethic of principled citizenship and service that reflects the ‘better angels of our nature’ and offers hope for bringing Americans together again.”
Larry J. Sabato, Director, Center for Politics at the University of Virginia
“Frank Atkinson is the foremost student-practitioner of Virginia politics. And The Lion's Den reflects the world Frank has studied and lived, politics as it really is: high-minded, lowdown, deeply personal and often great fun. Frank's a Virginia treasure and he's given the commonwealth and country a great gift with this timely novel - read it and then put it on your shelf next to his non-fiction and your copy of The Shad Treatment."
Jonathan Martin Politics Bureau Chief and Senior Political Columnist at POLITICO
GOING BIG PODCAST – Kevin Gentry w/Frank Atkinson
The podcast has featured notable guests such as Newt Gingrich, Mike Pence, David Rubenstein (Carlyle Group), Arthur C. Brooks (Harvard), Alan Smolinisky (LA Dodgers co-owner), Jon Erwin (Filmmaker), and Jane Kamensky (Monticello). Each episode features in-depth conversations with business owners, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, political figures, and others.
Can Principle Survive Power?
Can you be successful and faithful? Principled and practical? Can you get stuff done — but still do stuff right?
That’s the question I wrestled with for three decades while writing The Lion’s Den, and it’s the question Kevin Gentry asked me on his Going Big podcast.
It’s also the question the Book of Daniel answers.
As I told Kevin, being introduced to Daniel’s story had a profound impact on the book. Daniel was a young exile, taken into captivity and forced to serve in a hostile government. He didn’t conform to the dominant culture — but he didn’t retreat from it either. He engaged. He rose to high office. He had enormous positive impact.
Then the betrayal came. The rivals. The trap. The lions’ den. Because principled service exacts a price.
Daniel’s story taught me what politicians often forget: You have to know where you’ll draw the line before the pressure hits. What’s non-negotiable, ethically, morally? What’s non-negotiable in fidelity to the Constitution?
Reviews for Previous Books by Frank Atkinson
“Frank Atkinson's Virginia in the Vanguard offers a fascinating commentary on a Southern state in rapid social and political transition, just as with his first book, The Dynamic Dominion. This book also treats you to great historical story-telling. But best of all, it introduces you to some startlingly intriguing characters.
Atkinson is a brilliant, if not artful, writer. Yet, the special appeal of this book it that it is chockful of Atkinson's first-hand, personal accounts and glimpses of an unusual cast of characters who would seem almost Shakespearian in the complexity of their ambitions, achievements -- and tragic limitations and failures.”
— Kevin Gentry (5 stars)
“Frank Atkinson is a rare combination of scholar and practitioner-recognized by all of us who have covered Virginia politics as one of the keenest minds in either party or on either side of the reporter’s notebook. Virginia in the Vanguard arrives with superb timing, just as two of Virginia’s most interesting and capable politicians are springing on national notice. Atkinson’s work will alert readers outside Virginia to something I learned long ago-the Old Dominion has one of the most distinctive, entertaining, and occasionally outrageous political cultures of any state in the union.”
— John F. Harris, Co-founder and Chairman of POLITICO
“The Dynamic Dominion [old edition] is more than a history of the rise of the GOP in Virginia. It takes up where J. Harvie Wilkinson left off and serves as the definitive political history of Virginia through the early 1990's. Unlike Mr. Wilkinson's book, which was dominated by statistics and voting patterns showing the changes that occurred during the Byrd Machine tenure, Mr. Atkinson includes a wealth of material that was derived through interviews with actual participants in these events. This is simply THE BOOK for anyone interested in post-World War II Virginia politics, as well as those interested in southern politics.
I too look forward to an updated version of this book, especially in view of the GOP taking the state legislature. But I think a real challenge would be to unleash Frank's clear talents on a biography of Henry Howell, who many credit with being the political force that caused the Virginia democracy to tack far enough to the left to allow the GOP to become competitive in the late 1960's and early 1970's.”
— S. Connor (5 stars)
“In 1945, the Republican Party of Virginia was basically dead, having only four members in the 140 member General Assembly - two in the Senate and two in the House of Delegates, but in the last 50 years, the GOP has risen to a status of parity with Virginia's Democrats, who have been the majority party since Reconstruction. The Dynamic Dominion is an excellent account of the early history of the Republican Party's rise to preeminence in the Mother of Presidents. Mr. Atkinson goes into excellent detail about the events that helped to shape the future destiny of the party, especially those following the controversial 1978 State Republican Convention, in particular, the death of US Senate Nominee Richard Obenshain (whose name is still very much revered in Virginia Republican politics today) and the eventual nomination, candidacy, and election of John W. Warner, who was given invaluable assistance in his campaign by none other than famed actress Elizabeth Taylor. I would suggest that Mr. Atkinson's work be made required reading in political science courses at colleges and universities all across the country.”
— Parker Bena (5 stars)
“Mr. Atkinson is a partisan Republican. He is upfront about it in his author's bio on the book's dustjacket, which mentions his numerous positions in the GOP. At times one senses his partisan glee as he chronicles the rise to power of the Republican party in the Old Dominion from the 1960's, when the Civil Rights movement and the administration of LBJ (who carried VA in 1964) identified the Democratic Party with extreme liberalism, until the early 1990's, when Republican stock continued to soar statewide and nationwide. For the most part though he maintains objectivity and gives his readers a gripping account of this very important political transformation.
At times the book [The Dynamic Dominion] has the tension of a good thriller, along the lines of Advise and Consent or The Manchurian Candidate. Certainly Atkinson presents to us a genuine cast of characters and a series of ups and downs, successes and failures, conflicts and confrontations one would find in a novel.”
— Randall Ivey (5 stars)
“[The Lion’s Den - 1st Edition] reflects a perspective Atkinson holds dear: that campaigns and governance are about ideas, tested in spirited exchanges by, one hopes, ethically grounded people disinclined to assume, as often is the case now, that an adversary is aberrant because he or she disagrees with you.”
— Jeff Schapiro (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Oct. 7, 2020)
