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"A complex, intellectually jarring, and valuable book, one which
reveals how early America became her true self as we now know her."
-Kirkus Reviews The United States is currently experiencing a
crisis of citizenship and democracy. For many of us, there is a
sense of forlornness caused by losing sight of human connectedness
and the bonds of community. Originally published in 1973, and long
out of print, The Idea of Fraternity in America is a resonant call
to reclaim and restore the communal bonds of democracy by one of
the most important political theorists of the twentieth century,
Wilson Carey McWilliams. This sprawling and majestic book offers a
comprehensive and original interpretation of the whole range of
American historical and political thought, from seventeenth-century
White Puritanism to twentieth-century Black American political
thought. In one sense, it is a long and sustained reflection on the
American political tradition, with side glances at other cultures
and other traditions; in another sense, it is an impressive
beginning to an original and comprehensive theory of politics,
rooted in a new reading of a vast array of relevant sources.
Speaking with a prescience unmatched by his contemporaries,
McWilliams argues that in order to address the malaise of our
modern democracy we must return to an ideal of our past:
fraternity, a relation of affection founded on shared values and
goals. This 50th anniversary edition, which offers a critique of
the liberal tradition and a new social philosophy for the future,
contains a new introduction from McWilliams's daughter, Susan
McWilliams Barndt. She writes, "At a time when many Americans are
wondering how we got to where we are today . . . this book
demonstrates that there is in fact a lot of precedent for what
feels so unprecedented in contemporary American politics."
"A complex, intellectually jarring, and valuable book, one which
reveals how early America became her true self as we now know her."
-Kirkus Reviews The United States is currently experiencing a
crisis of citizenship and democracy. For many of us, there is a
sense of forlornness caused by losing sight of human connectedness
and the bonds of community. Originally published in 1973, and long
out of print, The Idea of Fraternity in America is a resonant call
to reclaim and restore the communal bonds of democracy by one of
the most important political theorists of the twentieth century,
Wilson Carey McWilliams. This sprawling and majestic book offers a
comprehensive and original interpretation of the whole range of
American historical and political thought, from seventeenth-century
White Puritanism to twentieth-century Black American political
thought. In one sense, it is a long and sustained reflection on the
American political tradition, with side glances at other cultures
and other traditions; in another sense, it is an impressive
beginning to an original and comprehensive theory of politics,
rooted in a new reading of a vast array of relevant sources.
Speaking with a prescience unmatched by his contemporaries,
McWilliams argues that in order to address the malaise of our
modern democracy we must return to an ideal of our past:
fraternity, a relation of affection founded on shared values and
goals. This 50th anniversary edition, which offers a critique of
the liberal tradition and a new social philosophy for the future,
contains a new introduction from McWilliams's daughter, Susan
McWilliams Barndt. She writes, "At a time when many Americans are
wondering how we got to where we are today . . . this book
demonstrates that there is in fact a lot of precedent for what
feels so unprecedented in contemporary American politics."
The purpose of this volume is to discuss the concept of
citizenship-in terms of its origins, its meanings, and its
contemporary place and relevance in American democracy, and within
a global context. The authors in this collection wrestle with the
connection of citizenship to major tensions between liberty and
equality, dynamism and stability, and civic disagreement and social
cohesion. The essays also raise fundamental questions about the
relationship between citizenship and leadership, and invite further
reflection on the features of citizenship and civic leadership
under the American Constitution. Finally, this collection offers
various suggestions about how to revitalize citizenship and civic
leadership through an education that is conducive to a renewal of
American civic practices and institutions.
The purpose of this volume is to discuss the concept of
citizenship-in terms of its origins, its meanings, and its
contemporary place and relevance in American democracy, and within
a global context. The authors in this collection wrestle with the
connection of citizenship to major tensions between liberty and
equality, dynamism and stability, and civic disagreement and social
cohesion. The essays also raise fundamental questions about the
relationship between citizenship and leadership, and invite further
reflection on the features of citizenship and civic leadership
under the American Constitution. Finally, this collection offers
various suggestions about how to revitalize citizenship and civic
leadership through an education that is conducive to a renewal of
American civic practices and institutions.
Americans love road trips. They love to go on road trips. They love
to read about road trips. They love to watch road trip stories
unfold on television and film. Road trip stories are a consistent
feature of the American landscape, a central part of American
mythology, and an important piece of the American dream. In The
American Road Trip and American Political Thought, Susan McWilliams
argues that the American fascination with road trip stories is
about more than mere escapism or wanderlust. She shows, in walking
through stories like On the Road and The Grapes of Wrath, that
American road trip stories are a key expression of American
political thought. They are not just stories of personal journeys.
They are stories of the American nation. McWilliams Barndt shows
how Americans have long used road trip stories to raise and explore
central questions about American politics in theory and practice.
They talk about freedom and equality and diversity and take those
vaunted American ideals for a test drive. American road trip
stories are where the rubber meets the road in American political
thought. The American Road Trip and American Political Thought
includes explorations of a wide variety of American authors, from
Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau to Erika Lopez and Cheryl
Strayed, from Mark Twain and John Steinbeck to Solomon Northup and
Hunter S. Thompson. It covers topics including gender, labor,
place, race, and technology in American political life. This is a
book that will change the way you think about the great American
road trip and the great American story.
Americans love road trips. They love to go on road trips. They love
to read about road trips. They love to watch road trip stories
unfold on television and film. Road trip stories are a consistent
feature of the American landscape, a central part of American
mythology, and an important piece of the American dream. In The
American Road Trip and American Political Thought, Susan McWilliams
argues that the American fascination with road trip stories is
about more than mere escapism or wanderlust. She shows, in walking
through stories like On the Road and The Grapes of Wrath, that
American road trip stories are a key expression of American
political thought. They are not just stories of personal journeys.
They are stories of the American nation. McWilliams Barndt shows
how Americans have long used road trip stories to raise and explore
central questions about American politics in theory and practice.
They talk about freedom and equality and diversity and take those
vaunted American ideals for a test drive. American road trip
stories are where the rubber meets the road in American political
thought. The American Road Trip and American Political Thought
includes explorations of a wide variety of American authors, from
Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau to Erika Lopez and Cheryl
Strayed, from Mark Twain and John Steinbeck to Solomon Northup and
Hunter S. Thompson. It covers topics including gender, labor,
place, race, and technology in American political life. This is a
book that will change the way you think about the great American
road trip and the great American story.
Problems of individual moral choice have always been closely bound
up with the larger normative concerns of political theory. There
are several reasons for this continuing connection. First, the
value conflicts involved in private moral choice often find
themselves reproduced on the public stage: for example, states may
find it difficult to do right by both justice and mercy in much the
same way individuals do. Second, we frequently find conflicts among
the values at stake in individual life and public life, such that
the moral choice we must make is between private and public goods.
Loosely speaking, choices which express these conflicts are what
philosophers call moral dilemmas: choices in which no matter what
one does one will be forfeiting some important moral good; in which
wrongdoing is to some degree inescapable; in which one is (perhaps
literally) damned if one does and damned if one doesn't. The eight
essays collected in this volume explore the philosophical problem
of moral dilemmas as that problem finds expression in ancient
drama, classic and contemporary novels, television, film, and
popular fiction. They consider four main types of dilemmas. In the
first section, the authors examine dilemmas associated with
political stability and regime change as expressed in the HBO
television series Deadwood and in Stephen King's novels and short
stories. The second section confronts dilemmas associated with
public leadership, considering the ethical conflicts in Aeschylus's
classical dramas The Suppliants, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and
in the contemporary FOX television series 24. In the volume's third
section, the authors examine dilemmas of institutional evil,
specifically slavery, as they emerge in Harriet Beecher Stowe's
classic novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter
novels. Finally, the collection considers dilemmas of community and
choice in Toni Morrison's novel Paradise and in the contemporary
film A Simple Plan.
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