"The Truth about Patriotism" is a bracing repudiation of the claim that patriotism is essential--or even beneficial--to democracy. Contending that even at its best patriotism subverts the democracy it purports to value, Steven Johnston turns to patriotism's defenders to show how they must jettison much of democracy to champion patriotism. Closely examined, patriotism itself effectively demonstrates the impossibility of love of country. Patriotism, Johnston argues, tends toward narcissistic self-regard, blind to its violent ways of being in the world and its dependence on death. Thus we would...

"The Truth about Patriotism" is a bracing repudiation of the claim that patriotism is essential--or even beneficial--to democracy. Contending that even at its best patriotism subverts the democracy it purports to value, Steven Johnston turns to patriotism's defenders to show how they must jettison much of democracy to champion patriotism. Closely examined, patriotism itself effectively demonstrates the impossibility of love of country. Patriotism, Johnston argues, tends toward narcissistic self-regard, blind to its violent ways of being in the world and its dependence on death. Thus we would...

In this book, political theorist Steve Johnston explores Lincoln's thought and political philosophy, but also his intentional and shrewdly calculated ambiguity - enabling him to be maximally politically effective in the face of unprecedented challenges.