Civility And Subversion

This book provides a new account of the role of the intellectual in democracy. Arguing that society suffers from a systemic deliberation deficit, Jeffrey Goldfarb explores the potential of the intellectual as democratic agent, civilizing political contestation and subverting complacent consensus. Intellectuals are special kinds of "strangers" who pay careful attention to their critical faculties and are uniquely equipped to address the most pressing issues of today. A diverse set of intellectuals in action are analyzed, from Socrates to Central European political dissidents, from Malcolm X to Toni Morrison.

"Offers a definition of civility and common-sense approaches that instructors and administrators can use to foster and maintain a civil environment in the classroom and on campus"--Provided by publisher.

MLK and the Practice of Spirituality The scholarship on Martin Luther King Jr. is seriously lacking in terms of richly nuanced and revelatory treatments of his spirituality and spiritual life. This book addresses this neglect by focusing on King's life as a paradigm of a deep, vital, engaging, balanced, and contagious spirituality. It shows that the essence of the person King was lies in the quality of his own spiritual journey and how that translated into not only a personal devotional life of prayer, meditation, and fasting but also a public ministry that involved the uplift and empowerment of humanity. Much attention is devoted to King's spiritual leadership, to his sense of the civil rights movement as "a spiritual movement," and to his efforts to rescue humanity from what he termed a perpetual "death of the spirit." Readers encounter a figure who took seriously the personal, interpersonal, and sociopolitical aspects of the Christian faith, thereby figuring prominently in recasting the very definition of spirituality in his time. King's "holistic spirituality" is presented here with a clarity and power fresh for our own generation.

This volume collects twenty-one original essays that discuss Michael Krausz's distinctive and provocative contribution to the theory of interpretation. At the beginning of the book Krausz offers a synoptic review of his central claims, and he concludes with a substantive essay that replies to scholars from the United States, England, Germany, India, Japan, and Australia. Krausz's philosophical work centers around a distinction that divides interpreters of cultural achievements into two groups. Singularists assume that for any object of interpretation only one single admissible interpretation can exist. Multiplists assume that for some objects of interpretation more than one interpretation is admissible. A central question concerns the ontological entanglements involved in interpretive activity. Domains of application include works of art and music, as well as literary, historical, legal and religious texts. Further topics include truth commissions, ethnocentrism and interpretations across cultures.

This concise, comprehensive primer on modern American social and political thought is the ideal introduction to the rich intellectual tradition of the United Sates. Andreas Hess helps the reader to understand of American culture and politics through careful exploration of key and theorists. In the first half of the book he focuses on the core traditions of American social and political thought American exceptionalism, Calvinist Protestantism, republicanism, liberalism and 20th century pragmatism. The second half of the book applies these traditions to a broad range of 20th century conditions and issues power and democracy, justice and injustice, multiculturalism and pluralism, civil society, social theory and the role of the intellectual. The works of some of the most influential figures in the field, such as De Tocqueville, Lipset, Arendt, Hartz, Pocock, Dewey, Moore, Rawls, Walzer, Rorty and Alexander, are drawn upon to illustrate the theories and issues being discussed. Accessibly written and jargon free, this treatment will be useful for students and scholars alike.

The culture wars have as much to do with rhetorical style as moral substance. Cathleen Kaveny focuses on a powerful stream of religious discourse in American political speech: the Biblical rhetoric of prophetic indictment. It can be strong medicine against threats to the body politic, she shows, but used injudiciously it does more harm than good.

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals and communities living at the margins of the modern nation-state use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state authority under both democratic and authoritarian governments. Through close attention to the claims and experiences of mountain shepherds in Greece and urban slum dwellers in Thailand, Herzfeld shows how these subversive archaists draw on national histories and past polities to claim legitimacy for their defiance of bureaucratic authority. Although vilified by government authorities as remote, primitive, or dangerous—often as preemptive justification for violent repression—these groups are not revolutionaries and do not reject national identity, but they do question the equation of state and nation. Herzfeld explores the political strengths and vulnerabilities of their deployment of heritage and the weaknesses they expose in the bureaucratic and ethnonational state in an era of accelerated globalization.

Michael Keren traces the political lives and messages of some of the twentieth century's greatest literary characters in this insightful and jargon-free book of literary criticism. He observes the infamous characters ranging from Joseph K from Franz Kafka's The Trial to Ralph from William Golding's Lord of the Flies to Chauncey Gardiner from Jerzy Kosinski's Being There and beyond while they struggle through their lives and world events. The Citizen's Voice is a refreshing contribution to civil society theory that makes a pioneering effort to cross the boundaries between politics, literature, and culture. A study of the human condition via literature this book expounds the key features of a good citizen while offering a perfect discussion piece for courses in political theory, politics and literature, and history.