Fundamental Differences brings together lucid interdisciplinary critiques of social conservative politics and ideas in the areas of welfare, family and school policy, gender representation, and conservative doctrine. The distinguished group of authors responds directly to New Right political discourse, identifying key ambiguities, ideological convictions, and methodological problems.

Scholarship on the role of religion in American public life has taken on a new urgency in the increasingly contentious wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. This volume brings together an impressive group of scholars to build on past work and broaden the scope of this crucial inquiry in two respects: by exploring aspects of the religion-politics nexus in the United States that have been neglected in the past, and by examining traditional questions concerning the religious tincture of American political discourse in provocative new ways. Essays include examinations of religious rhetoric in American political and cultural discourse after September 11th, the impact of religious ideas on environmental ethics, religion and American law beyond the First Amendment, religious responses to questions of gay and lesbian rights, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and issues of free speech and public space in Utah, and the role of religious institutions and ideas on the political priorities of African-American and Latino communities. In addition, Religion, Politics, and American Identity includes introductory and concluding essays by leading scholars in the field of religion and politics that assess present and future directions for study.

Scholarship on the role of religion in American public life has taken on a new urgency in the increasingly contentious wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. This volume brings together an impressive group of scholars to build on past work and broaden the scope of this crucial inquiry in two respects: by exploring aspects of the religion-politics nexus in the United States that have been neglected in the past, and by examining traditional questions concerning the religious tincture of American political discourse in provocative new ways. Essays include examinations of religious rhetoric in American political and cultural discourse after September 11th, the impact of religious ideas on environmental ethics, religion and American law beyond the First Amendment, religious responses to questions of gay and lesbian rights, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and issues of free speech and public space in Utah, and the role of religious institutions and ideas on the political priorities of African-American and Latino communities. In addition, Religion, Politics, and American Identity includes introductory and concluding essays by leading scholars in the field of religion and politics that assess present and future directions for study.

As we enter the twenty-first century, scholars, activists and others concerned with social change increasingly realize that in order to transform society effective coalitions among different groups working for social justice need to be created and maintained. However, most of the research and writing about coalitions provide rather limited approaches to the study and understanding of radical alliances; i.e.: coalitions whose goals are to fundamentally change interpersonal relations and social structure in order to achieve equality and true social justice. This anthology challenges dominant approaches of explaining social movements and coalition building. Based on numerous case studies of alliances created between disparate peoples and among a variety of groups, the authors show that both resource mobilization theories and identity politics frameworks for the most part are inadequate for conceptualizing how alliances have been and can be created across boundaries of gender, race/ethnicity, class, nationality, ideology, sexual orientation, and age. The theoretical approach we propose suggests that coalitions are fluid sites of collective behavior where the blending of multiple identities with political activism interact with structural conditions to influence the development of commitments, strategies and specific actions. This analogy makes a contribution to a body of knowledge that aims to understand and explain how radical coalitions work in order to enable the development of visions and plans for change that advance and sustain political and social activity.

As we enter the twenty-first century, scholars, activists and others concerned with social change increasingly realize that in order to transform society effective coalitions among different groups working for social justice need to be created and maintained. However, most of the research and writing about coalitions provide rather limited approaches to the study and understanding of radical alliances; i.e.: coalitions whose goals are to fundamentally change interpersonal relations and social structure in order to achieve equality and true social justice. This anthology challenges dominant approaches of explaining social movements and coalition building. Based on numerous case studies of alliances created between disparate peoples and among a variety of groups, the authors show that both resource mobilization theories and identity politics frameworks for the most part are inadequate for conceptualizing how alliances have been and can be created across boundaries of gender, race/ethnicity, class, nationality, ideology, sexual orientation, and age. The theoretical approach we propose suggests that coalitions are fluid sites of collective behavior where the blending of multiple identities with political activism interact with structural conditions to influence the development of commitments, strategies and specific actions. This analogy makes a contribution to a body of knowledge that aims to understand and explain how radical coalitions work in order to enable the development of visions and plans for change that advance and sustain political and social activity.

The United States has intermittently experienced left- and right-wing populist movements that challenge established forms of corrupt political authority and promise to return America to the ideals of its founders and people. For those who might have hoped that the new century would bring an end to ideology or even to familiar ideological conflicts of the Left and the Right, the Tea Party movement and other forms of right-wing populism, in the U.S. and abroad, offer little hope of such a resolution. Most eruptions of populist anger are directed against elites and elite values; however, the most recent manifestations of populism are also characterized by the omnipresence of corporate media and the important role that popular media personalities play in actively promoting right-wing populism. Together, these insightful scholarly articles provide new understandings of contemporary right-wing populism, including the ways in which the media either have actively promoted such populism or, more passively, failed to challenge its ideas and political consequences. This collection will be useful for students of American politics as well as students of contemporary right-wing politics. This book was published as a special issue of New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture.

"Reminds us of the importance of unsettling and often disruptive and messy emotions like rage, greed, anger, and hate, and the effect of these disagreeable passions' on the self and perception."
--James M. Glass Department of Political Science University of Maryland, College Park Author of Shattered Selves

"A timely contribution to the fields of political theory, feminist theory, and psychology."
--Jane Flax, Professor of Political Science Howard University

"A fascinating and important treatment of feminist theory...a sensitive and searching critique that reminds us of the importance of unsettling and often disruptive and messy emotions like rage, greed, anger, and hate, and the effect of these disagreeable passions' on the self and perception."
--James M. Glass, University of Maryland, College ParkAuthor of Shattered Selves

.,."deserves to be read and taken seriously."
--E. Victor Wolfenstein, UCLA, Author of Psychoanalytic-Marxism: Groundwork.

Women, says conventional wisdom, are warm, nurturing caregivers with an intrinsically enhanced capacity for attachment and compassion. Feminists, says the popular image, are full of rage, devoid of the feelings that are natural to women. How have feminists themselves dealt with this dualism and, more specifically, with the disagreeable passions?

What has too often been missing from discussions of women's psychology in social theory is an account of women as ambivalent: both empathic and enraged, loving and hating. The Problem of the Passions fills this void. Examining the work of such feminist theorists as Carol Gilligan, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, and Dorothy Dinnerstein in a new light, Burack argues thatfeminist social theory can be repaired through attention to the pioneering psychoanalytic work of Melanie Klein. Sure to be of interest to feminists, psychoanalysts, political scientists, and social theorists, The Problem of the Passions is essential reading for anyone concerned with feminism and questions of identity in social thought.

Group identifications famously pose the problem of destructive rhetoric and action against others. Cynthia Burack brings together the theory work of women of color and the tools of psychoanalysis to examine the effects of group collaborations for social justice and progressive politics. This juxtaposition illuminates some assumptions about race and equality encoded in psychoanalysis. Burack's discursive analysis suggests the positive, identity-affirming aspects of group relational life for African American women.One analytic response to groups emphasizes the dangers of these identifications and exhorts people to abandon or transcend them for their own good and for the good of others who may be harmed by group-based forms of cultural or material violence. Another response understands that people feel a need for group identifications and asks how they may be made more resistant to malignant group-based discourse and action.What can black feminist thought teach scholars and democratic citizens about groups? Burack shows how the rhetoric of black feminism models reparative, rather than destructive, forms of group dialogue and action. Although it may be impossible to eliminate group identifications that provide much of the impetus for bias and violence, she argues, we can encourage more progressive forms of leadership, solidarity, and coalition politics.

Group identifications famously pose the problem of destructive rhetoric and action against others. Cynthia Burack brings together the theory work of women of color and the tools of psychoanalysis to examine the effects of group collaborations for social justice and progressive politics. This juxtaposition illuminates some assumptions about race and equality encoded in psychoanalysis. Burack's discursive analysis suggests the positive, identity-affirming aspects of group relational life for African American women.One analytic response to groups emphasizes the dangers of these identifications and exhorts people to abandon or transcend them for their own good and for the good of others who may be harmed by group-based forms of cultural or material violence. Another response understands that people feel a need for group identifications and asks how they may be made more resistant to malignant group-based discourse and action.What can black feminist thought teach scholars and democratic citizens about groups? Burack shows how the rhetoric of black feminism models reparative, rather than destructive, forms of group dialogue and action. Although it may be impossible to eliminate group identifications that provide much of the impetus for bias and violence, she argues, we can encourage more progressive forms of leadership, solidarity, and coalition politics.

A staple of the culture wars, the struggle between Christian conservatives and progressives over sexuality and reproductive rights continues. Focusing on ex-gay ministries geared to helping same-sex attracted people resist their sexuality and postabortion ministries dedicated to leading women who have had an abortion to repent that decision, Cynthia Burack argues that both are motivated and characterized by a strain of compassion that is particular to Christian conservatism rather than a bias and hatred toward sexual minorities and sexually active women. This compassion reproduces the sexual ideology of the Christian right and absolves Christian conservatives from responsibility for stigma and other forms of harm to postabortive and same-sex attracted people. Using the democratic theory of Hannah Arendt, the popular fiction of Ayn Rand, and the psychoanalytic thought of Melanie Klein, Burack studies the social and political effects of Christian conservative compassion.