Radical Civility unearths civility's extraordinary potential by addressing why the virtue has fallen into crisis, recalling the injunctions that transpose utopia upon the stingy politics of likelihood, and by offering a vision of citizens who find purpose in dignifying each other. Jason Caro takes a three pronged approach; first identifying the effects of the misuse of civility, then expanding the meaning of civility, and finally offering applied examples of civility. Civility bears its participants to utopia. Such utopia has many forms: the politics of unlikelihood, the civil community, the ideal civility situation, or charmocracy. Unlike many studies of political manners, Caro embraces the relation between the virtue and politeness. Civility is then the effort to have politics charm. Caro draws out the full potential of the virtue by observing how such politeness is a particular mode of communicative action whereby participants are not merely exchanging face-saving gestures but constructing utopia. This radical stance raises the stakes of the debate on civility by setting the book implacably against realism and its politics of likelihood. It will appeal to those in the social sciences, cultural studies, social psychology, philosophy, communication, and peace studies.

This title deconstructs Anglo-American texts that posit freedom as natural to show that free people must construct their history and their Others to count themselves as free. "The Origins of Free Peoples" posits that free people are always being liberated and never already free. Free people make freedom paramount over justice, equality, or other value. The history of such people is different from their origins, which are always underway as free people must construct both their history and their Others. It is not simply that they become threatened; they must face the correct kind of threat (as King George III to Jefferson's Americans). The book examines how freedom is discussed in classic and contemporary Anglo-American texts, arguing the notion that freedom is natural and needs only to be guaranteed by limited government. Using a Continental and postmodernist approach, the book offers an alternative conceptualization of the discourses and practices of freedom represented in the writings of theorists such as Locke, Rawls, Benn, and Swanton. With its distinctive position in the discussion of freedom, "The Origins of Free Peoples" will appeal to political theorists, political philosophers as well as to those looking to understand the main factors needed to genuinely liberate a people.

The Origins of Free Peoples posits demonstrates that free peoples are always being liberated and are never already free. Free peoples make freedom paramount over justice, equality, or other value values. The history of such peoples is different from their origins, which are always underway as free people must construct both their history and their Others. It is not simply that they become threatened; they must face the correct kind of threat. The book examines how freedom is discussed in classic and contemporary Anglo-American texts which argue , arguing the notion that freedom is natural and needs only to be guaranteed by limited government. Using a Continental and postmodernist approach, the book offers an alternative conceptualization of the discourses and practices of freedom represented in the writings of theorists such as Locke, Rawls, Benn, and Swanton. With its distinctive position in the discussion of freedom, The Origins of Free Peoples will appeal to social political theorists, political philosophers as well as to those looking to understand the main factors needed to genuinely liberate a people.