Al Regnery has not been directly involved with book publishing for a number of years, but he is getting back into the business in a joint venture with Eric Kampmann, head of Midpoint Trade and Beaufort Books, to publish a book based on the cover story of the summer issue of The American Spectator for which Regnery is publisher. The 12,000-word article, “The Ruling Class—And the Perils of Revolution” by Angelo Codevilla, argues that the country is not divided along Democratic and Republican lines but by a class system in which a group of elites uses their power to promote their own agenda.
Kampmann had read the piece in the magazine and though it was important enough to be published as a book. He contacted Regnery, who Kampmann has known for years, and while Regnery was thinking it over, the article was posted on the Spectator Web site where it drew over 200,000 hits on the first day. It also caught the attention of Rush Limbaugh who devoted one entire show to the piece. With word of mouth spreading, Kampmann and Regnery agreed to release the article as The Ruling Class: How Political Elites Hijacked America as Beaufort Books/American Spectator title. Limbaugh is doing an introduction to the $12.99 trade paperback and has given a blurb that reads “It is a brilliant piece, folks, and it's important. It's not often that I say that...it dovetails with something that I have been trying to explain for 20 years on this program...it is just too right on, right on, right on!."
Kampmann is currently soliciting orders and expects the first printing to be in the 35,000 to 50,000-copy range when the book is released Sept. 12. Kampmann and Regnery are hoping the book will become part of the national discussion during the fall election. “It is a seminal piece of original thinking,” said Regnery. “It defines the way the country really is divided today.”
