Demanding Democracy (ebook)

Argumento de Demanding Democracy (ebook)

"In quest of America's radical democratic tradition? Here it is: in the dreams of the early Progressives and in the 1960s lunch counter protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the early CIO commitment to justice by any means necessary and in the later Vietnam-era antiwar movement. Writing with a realist's appreciation of the complexities of politics, but with an idealist's care for the lives and fortunes of his subjects, Marc Stears tells the story of those who risked everything to take their place at the democratic table. Battles for a new citizenship, workplace democracy, participatory practices, and racial equality come alive, as do the voices of the intellectuals who helped shape them: Croly, Lippmann, Niebuhr, Dewey, Ellison, King, Carmichael, Walzer, and Arendt. But this is not just a work of history. This book finds in the ups and downs of American radicalism the resources with which to contest contemporary political theory's often settled opinion that utopianism leads to violence and that violence has no place in a properly liberal or deliberative politics. Demanding Democracy demands to be read by anyone committed to the reinvigoration of political theory and practice."--Bonnie Honig, Northwestern University

"This is an important book at the intersection of political history and political theory, written at a time when new perspectives in American self-understanding are very much needed, especially on the political left."--Eldon J. Eisenach, professor emeritus, University of Tulsa

"Marc Stears is an excellent scholar, and his richly textured and expansive book is a good marriage of political theory and history. What is most valuable is his success in writing the history of American radicalism without getting bogged down in the tired old question of why there is no socialism in America."--Mark Hulliung, Brandeis University

"Graduate students and scholars interested in the connections between democratic thought, activism and new social movements in the U.S. will find this book informative, if professionally unsettling."--Jeffrey D. Hilmer, Political Studies Review

"This is an excellent, evocative book examining often-ignored possibilities for American democracy. It adds richness and depth to analysis of American political thought and to continuing debate about the nature, content, and purpose of democracy."--Choice

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010

"The bulk of Demanding Democracy is an interpretation of 60 years of American radical democratic thought and activism through the lens of these concerns. And it proves a most fruitful way of thinking about this history, particularly because Stears is acutely alert to the 'fiendishly difficult' task that his subjects set themselves."--Robert Westbrook, Perspectives on Politics

"[T]he book provides a fine primer on democratic theory in twentieth century America. . . . [It] also offers a bold and terse read, important not just for historians but also for political activists and thinkers."--Kevin Mattson, Journal of American History0Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART ONE 1900-1945
Chapter One: Making the Nation a Neighborhood 21
Chapter Two: After the Breach 56
Chapter Three: Radicalism Americanized 85
PART TWO: 1945-1972
Chapter Four: Doubt and the American Creed 119
Chapter Five: The Explosive Enclave 145
Chapter Six: "We Are Beginning to Move Again" 174
Conclusion: Renewing the American Radical Tradition 206
Bibliography 223
Index 243