In this thought-provoking collection, leading scholars explore democracy in the United States from a sweeping variety of perspectives. A dozen contributors consider the nature and prospects of democracy as it relates to the American experience--free markets, religion, family life, the Cold War, higher education, and more. These probing essays bring American democracy into fresh focus, complete with its idealism, its moral greatness, its disappointments, and its contradictions.
Based on DeVane lectures delivered at Yale University, these writings examine large themes and ask important...
In this thought-provoking collection, leading scholars explore democracy in the United States from a sweeping variety of perspectives. A dozen cont...
Jedediah Purdy calls For Common Things his "letter of love for the world's possibilities." Indeed, these pages--which garnered a flurry of attention among readers and in the media--constitute a passionate and persuasive testament to the value of political, social, and community reengagement. Drawing on a wide range of literary and cultural influences--from the writings of Montaigne and Thoreau to the recent popularity of empty entertainment and breathless chroniclers of the technological age--Purdy raises potent questions about our stewardship of civic values. Most important, Purdy...
Jedediah Purdy calls For Common Things his "letter of love for the world's possibilities." Indeed, these pages--which garnered a flurry of atte...
Having risen to national attention with his first book, For Common Things," " Jedediah Purdy now cements his claim to being one of the most arresting public intellectuals of his generation. In Being America, Purdy turns his erudition and unique perspective to America's relationship with a world that both admires and hates it. Purdy has absorbed insights from people around the world: Westernized Egyptians who consider Osama bin Laden a hero, an urbane Indian who espouses gay rights and the most thuggish kind of Hindu nationalism, Cambodian sweat-shop workers, and others. Out of these...
Having risen to national attention with his first book, For Common Things," " Jedediah Purdy now cements his claim to being one of the most arresting ...
In A Tolerable Anarchy, Jedediah Purdy traces the history of the American understanding of freedom, an ideal that has inspired the country s best and worst moments, from independence and emancipation to war and economic uncertainty. Working from portraits of famous American lives, like Frederick Douglas and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Purdy asks crucial questions about our relationship to liberty: Does capitalism perfect or destroy freedom? Does freedom mean following tradition, God s word, or one s own heart? Can a nation of individuals also be a community of citizens? This is history that...
In A Tolerable Anarchy, Jedediah Purdy traces the history of the American understanding of freedom, an ideal that has inspired the country s be...
In his latest book, Jedediah Purdy takes up a question of deep and lasting importance: why is property ownership a value to society? His answer returns us to the foundations of American society and enables us to interpret the writings of the patron saint of liberal economics, Adam Smith, in a wholly new light.
Unlike Milton Friedman and other free-market scholars, who consider property a key to efficient markets, Purdy draws upon Smith's theories to argue that the virtues of wealth are social rather than economic. In Purdy's view, ownership does much more than shield one from government...
In his latest book, Jedediah Purdy takes up a question of deep and lasting importance: why is property ownership a value to society? His answer ret...
Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for environmental justice, Mountains of Injustice contributes to the ongoing debate over how to equitably distribute the long-term environmental costs and consequences of economic development.
Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for environmental justice, Mountains of Injustice contributes to the ong...
