American politics and government are so moribund, according to Erwin Jaffe, that serious political dialogue is a stranger in a land celebrated for freedom of expression. "Healing the Body Politic" examines the sources of this condition, among them the loss of connectedness (society's orientation toward mobility and its relative disinterest in place, neighborhood, and community), widespread misunderstanding of the distinction and relationship between power and violence, and a distorted image of political life and responsibility. This broad-based work examines these problems and proposes,...