In this collection of essays, Joshua Cohen locates ideas about democracy in three far-ranging contexts. First, he explores the relationship between democratic values and history. He then discusses democracy in connection with the views of defining political theorists in the democratic tradition: John Locke, John Rawls, Noam Chomsky, Juergen Habermas, and Susan Moller Okin. Finally, he examines the place of democratic ideals in a global setting, suggesting an idea of "global public reason"--a terrain of political justification in global politics in which shared reason still plays an essential...

Josh Cohen argues that Auschwitz is a key problem for how we think and therefore we cannot be assured that Auschwitz will not repeat itself.