Civic Ideals

Civic Ideals PDF

Author: Rogers M. Smith

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 740

ISBN-13: 9780300078770

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Is civic identity in the United States really defined by liberal, democratic political principles? Or is U.S. citizenship the product of multiple traditions--not only liberalism and republicanism but also white supremacy, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, Protestant supremacy, and male supremacy? In this powerful and disturbing book, Rogers Smith traces political struggles over U.S. citizenship laws from the colonial period through the Progressive era and shows that throughout this time, most adults were legally denied access to full citizenship, including political rights, solely because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. Basic conflicts over these denials have driven political development and civic membership in the U.S., Smith argues. These conflicts are what truly define U.S. civic identity up to this day. Others have claimed that nativist, racist, and sexist traditions have been marginal or that they are purely products of capitalist institutions. In contrast, Smith's pathbreaking account explains why these traditions have been central to American political and economic life. He shows that in the politics of nation building, principles of democracy and liberty have often failed to foster a sense of shared "peoplehood" and have instead led many Americans to claim that they are a "chosen people," a "master race" or superior culture, with distinctive gender roles. Smith concludes that today the United States is in a period of reaction against the egalitarian civic reforms of the last generation, with nativist, racist, and sexist beliefs regaining influence. He suggests ways that proponents of liberal democracy should alter their view of U.S. citizenship in order to combat these developments more effectively.

Civic Myths

Civic Myths PDF

Author: Brook Thomas

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1469606798

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As questions of citizenship generate new debates for this generation of Americans, Brook Thomas argues for revitalizing the role of literature in civic education. Thomas defines civic myths as compelling stories about national origin, membership, and values that are generated by conflicts within the concept of citizenship itself. Selected works of literature, he claims, work on these myths by challenging their terms at the same time that they work with them by relying on the power of narrative to produce compelling new stories. Civic Myths consists of four case studies: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and "the good citizen"; Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country" and "the patriotic citizen"; Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and "the independent citizen"; and Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men and "the immigrant citizen." Thomas also provides analysis of the civic mythology surrounding Abraham Lincoln and the case of Ex parte Milligan. Engaging current debates about civil society, civil liberties, civil rights, and immigration, Thomas draws on the complexities of law and literature to probe the complexities of U.S. citizenship.

Civic Liberalism

Civic Liberalism PDF

Author: Thomas A. Spragens

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780847696116

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In Civic Liberalism: Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals, prominent political theorist Thomas A. Spragens, Jr. asserts that most versions of democratic ideals--libertarianism, liberal egalitarianism, difference liberalism, and the liberalism of fear--lead our polity significantly astray. Spragens offers another alternative. He argues that we should recover the multiple and complex aspirations found within the tradition of democratic liberalism and integrate them into a more compelling public philosophy for our time--or what he calls civic liberalism. Civic liberalism, Spragens contends, endorses both liberty and equality although neither can properly be understood as a maximizing principle. Instead, liberty should be seen as the constitutive threshold good of autonomy; and equality should be seen as a moral postulate and instrumental good. Moreover, civic liberalism explicitly embraces forms of 'fraternity, ' civic friendship, and civic virtue consistent with respect for social pluralism. Therefore, a better understanding of our democratic ideals will free us from the constrictive orthodoxies of the left and right, lead us toward better public policy, and help us become a well ordered society of flourishing, self-governing civic equals.

The Civic Culture

The Civic Culture PDF

Author: Gabriel Abraham Almond

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-12-08

Total Pages: 575

ISBN-13: 1400874564

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The authors interviewed over 5,000 citizens in Germany, Italy, Mexico, Great Britain, and the U.S. to learn political attitudes in modem democratic states. Originally published in 1963. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Teaching America

Teaching America PDF

Author: David Feith

Publisher: R&L Education

Published: 2011-09-16

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1607098407

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In Teaching America, more than 20 leading thinkers sound the alarm over a crisis in citizenship--and lay out a powerful agenda for reform. The book's unprecedented roster of authors includes Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Senator Jon Kyl, Senator Bob Graham, Secretary Rod Paige, Alan Dershowitz, Juan Williams, Glenn Reynolds, Michael Kazin, Frederick Hess, Andrew Rotherham, Mike Feinberg, Seth Andrew, Mark Bauerlein and more. Their message: To remain America, our country has to give its kids a civic identity, an understanding of our constitutional system, and some appreciation of the amazing achievements of American self-government. But we are failing. Young Americans know little about the Bill of Rights, the democratic process, or the civil rights movement. Three of every four high school seniors aren't proficient in civics, nine of ten can't cut it in U.S. history, and the problem is only aggravated by universities' disregard for civic education. Such civic illiteracy weakens our common culture, disenfranchises would-be voters, and helps poison our politics.

Citizenship

Citizenship PDF

Author: Derek Heater

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2004-09-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9780719068416

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Citizenship describes, analyzes and interprets the topic of citizenship in a global context as it has developed historically, in its variations as a political concept and status, and the ways in which citizens have been and are being educated for that status. The book provides a historical survey which ranges from the Ancient Greeks to the twentieth century, and reveals the legacies which each era passed on to later centuries. It explains the meaning of citizenship, what political citizenship entails and the nature of citizenship as a status, and also tackles the issue of whether there can be a generally accepted, holistic understanding of the idea. For this new edition an epilogue has been written which demonstrates the intense nature of the academic and pedagogical debates on the subject as well as the practical matters relating to the status since 1990.

Citizenship

Citizenship PDF

Author: Derek Benjamin Heater

Publisher: Longman Publishing Group

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13:

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Historical, political and educational material are synthesised in this book in an attempt to define citizenship. It tries to show what the status of citizenship implies and the complexity of the role of a citizen. World citizenship as well as national citizenship is looked at.

Educating for Civic-mindedness

Educating for Civic-mindedness PDF

Author: Carolin Kreber

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-06-17

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1317196562

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Imagined at their best, how might professions contribute most effectively to their local and global communities, and how could higher education support graduates/future professionals in making this contribution? The answer proposed in this book is to educate students for ‘civic-mindedness’, an overarching professional capability grounded in certain dispositions and qualities, ideals, types of knowledge and political emotions. ‘Civic-mindedness’, and its internal counterpart, the practitioner’s self-cultivation, give rise to an engagement with professional practice that is authentic, civic and democratic. The tension between responsiveness or regard for others and regard for self is overcome by recognising that authentic professional identities are constructed through practices around shared purposes and ideals. Drawing on a wide range of theorists including Dewey, Arendt, and Nussbaum, professions are envisaged to play a vital role. Primarily professions support society’s well-being by ensuring access to public goods, such as local and global justice, access to information, health, education, safety, housing, the beauty and sustaining power of the ecological environment, among others. Yet professions also protect the fundamental good of citizen participation in free deliberation and decision-making on issues affecting their lives. The book concludes with a vision of higher education that is transformative of graduates/professionals, pedagogies, professional practices and communities. Issues of increasing social awareness are a key concern for anyone involved in teaching professionals and this book, which builds best practice around a sound theoretical and philosophical framework, will prove both thought-provoking and practical in application.