Demanding democracy : American radicals in search of a new politics / Marc Stears.
2010
JK1726 .S74 2010 (Mapit)
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Title
Demanding democracy : American radicals in search of a new politics / Marc Stears.
Author
Stears, Marc.
ISBN
9780691133409 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
0691133409 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9780691157900
0691157901
0691133409 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9780691157900
0691157901
Imprint
Princeton : Princeton University Press, ©2010.
Language
English
Description
x, 246 pages ; 25 cm
Call Number
JK1726 .S74 2010
Summary
This is a major work of history and political theory that traces radical democratic thought in America across the twentieth century, seeking to recover ideas that could reenergize democratic activism today. The question of how citizens should behave as they struggle to create a more democratic society has haunted the United States throughout its history. Should citizens restrict themselves to patient persuasion or take to the streets and seek to impose change? Marc Stears argues that anyone who continues to wrestle with these questions could learn from the radical democratic tradition that was forged in the twentieth century by political activists, including progressives, trade unionists, civil rights campaigners, and members of the student New Left. These activists and their movements insisted that American campaigners for democratic change should be free to strike out in whatever ways they thought necessary, so long as their actions enhanced the political virtues of citizens and contributed to the eventual triumph of the democratic cause. Reevaluating the moral and strategic arguments, and the triumphs and excesses, of this radical democratic tradition, Stears contends that it still offers a compelling account of citizen behavior--one that is fairer, more inclusive, and more truly democratic than those advanced by political theorists today.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-241) and index.
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Table of Contents
1900-1945. Making the nation a neighborhood
After the breach
Radicalism americanized
1945-1972. Doubt and the American creed
The explosive enclave
We are beginning to move again
Renewing the American radical tradition.
After the breach
Radicalism americanized
1945-1972. Doubt and the American creed
The explosive enclave
We are beginning to move again
Renewing the American radical tradition.