Product Description: Efforts to resolve the recent financial crisis have obscured a more deeply rooted financialization crisis that impacts not only the market economy but also the vital civic and moral traditions that support it. This book reveals the cultural influence of finance in reshaping the foundations of American civil society and proposes a return to certain "first principles" of the Republic to restore the nation’s economic vision...read more

Product Description: This book explores the idea that table activities--the mealtime rituals of food preparation, serving, and dining--lay the foundation for a proper education on the value of civility, the importance of the common good, and what it means to be a good citizen...read more

The controversial political pundant offers her call to arms, arguing that Americans are eager to clean up government, root out corruption, and 'throw the bums out', and should do so, quickly. Reprint. 40,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: This brief edition of a groundbreaking textbook addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. Designed for first-year or more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, it is one-third shorter than the original edition, more affordable for students, and easier for teachers to cover in a semester or quarter...read more

Has America, in its quest for goodness, sacrificed its sense of greatness? In this sharp-witted, historically informed book, veteran political observer Alan Wolfe argues that most Americans show greater concern with saving the country's soul than with making the nation great. Wolfe castigates both conservatives and liberals for opting for small-mindedness over greatness. Liberals, who at their best insisted on policies of national solidarity, have convinced themselves that small is beautiful, prefer multiculturalism to one nation, and are mistrustful of executive political power. Conservatives, who once embraced strong, active central government and an ideal of national citizenship, now support huge tax cuts that undermine America's future ability to undertake any ambitious, long-term project at home or abroad. No great society, in Wolfe's view, has ever been built on the cheap. Wolfe notes that neither the conservatives' call for small-scale faith-based initiatives nor the recent embrace on the left of a grassroots "civil society" can provide health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans or ensure national security in an age of terrorism. To find better solutions, Wolfe looks back at specific moments in our national experience, when, in the face of sharp resistance, aspirations for the idea of national greatness shaped American history. He demonstrates how a bold and ambitious political agenda, championed at various times by Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, and the two Roosevelts, steered the country toward periods of national strength and unity. Steeped in a colorful, panoramic reading of history, Return to Greatness offers a fresh take on American national identity and purpose. A call to action for a renewed embrace of the ideal of an activist federal government and bold policy agendas, it is sure to become a centerpiece of national debate.

Product Description: The New American Social Compact examines the need to redefine the social compact in twenty-first-century America. Grant explores the two components of this compact―the rights and obligations of citizenship―as well as what she sees as the four substantive areas that are critical to realizing a new social compact in America...read more

Product Description: The New American Social Compact examines the need to redefine the social compact in twenty-first-century America. Grant explores the two components of this compact_the rights and obligations of citizenship_as well as what she sees as the four substantive areas that are critical to realizing a new social compact in America...read more

Product Description: Civic engagement, defined as individual and collective action to identify public issues and participate in public life, has been a hotly contested subject in recent years. Beginning with a chapter by the editors that maps current key issues and main research questions, contributors to this volume counter claims of civic decline to show how, when, where, and why people act civically in multiple ways in various settings and contexts...read more

Product Description: From the architect of the US military’s “shock and awe” doctrine comes an explanation of why our current political culture is far more destructive than all of Al Qaeda’s deadly intentions.

Product Description: This book analyzes the problems of U.S. politics and public policy and proposes a solution rooted in a deep American consensus that often goes unrecognized. The authors critique three dominant ideological perspectives - conservative, radical, and liberal - and propose a fourth eclectic 'outcomes' perspective rooted in American pragmatism...read more

Product Description: In searching for answers as to why young people differ vastly from their parents and grandparents when it comes to turning out the vote, A New Engagement challenges the conventional wisdom that today's youth is plagued by a severe case of political apathy...read more

Product Description: We are taught in civics class that the Constitution provides for three basic branches of government: executive, judicial, and legislative. While the President and Congress as elected by popular vote are representative, can they really reflect accurately the will and sentiment of the populace? Or do money and power dominate everyday politics to the detriment of true self-governance? Is there a way to put "We the people" back into government? Ethan Leib thinks there is and offers this blueprint for a fourth branch of government as a way of giving the people a voice of their own...read more

The author of The World of Prometheus argues that the transition to political friendship offered by the Brown v. Board of Education decision has not been completed, and proposes practical techniques of bridging citizenship and trust through sacrifice.

Product Description: Commentators in popular media and professional publications alike have decried the extent to which civility, civic virtue, tolerance, and socio-cultural unity have declined in modern liberal societies. In this volume, contributors from philosophy and political science discuss this dilemma while exploring the nature of civil society, the conflict between individual liberty and the common good, and the role of law and government policy in weaving the threads of the social fabric...read more

The threat posed by lack of participation in the institutions of democracy is serious, and the author of this hard-hitting, insightful examination of the problem traces the problem back to the 1960s, offering solutions for how to reverse the trend. (Politics & Government) (view table of contents)