Description
Book SynopsisThis is a collection of essays that honour Wilson Carey McWilliams as a leader and scholar. The 14 essays pay tribute to him as a friend and citizen and seek to share their understanding of McWilliams's thinking through their own analyses of American political life.
Trade ReviewFor those of us who know Carey McWilliams, these artfully written essays are a richly deserved tribute to one of our nation's most important voices. As exceptionalism defines America, so too does Carey McWilliams define the exceptional teacher and political theorist. His breadth of understanding about American public life is exceeded only by the degree to which he has inspired generations of students to a larger understanding of their native land. Friendship and citizenship stand at the center of Carey's teaching and writing and those themes are wonderfully echoed in the essays in this extraordinary book. -- Henry Plotkin, Executive Director, New Jersey State Employment & Training Commission
Friends and Citizens amplifies the distinctive themes that have marked Carey McWilliams's career. United by their admiration for Carey, political theorists of widely varying approaches and persuasions supply rich fare for examining friendship and citizenship from the Bible and the Greeks to major and lesser known figures in the American political tradition. In McWilliams's spirit, these are essays that pursue the deepest and most mysterious realms of democratic experience. -- Bruce L. Miroff, University of Albany
The essays are almost uniformly of high quality, readable, interesting. * Claremont Review of Books *
Friends and Citizens is a model festschrift. Particularly recommended are the cluster of essays on friendships and politics. Though it cannot be said successfully to bring order to the "dazzling eccentricities" of Wilson Carey McWiliams' teachings, it does illustrate their capacity to stimulate. * American Political Science Review *
For four decades, Wilson Carey McWilliams has been informing and challenging colleagues and students with his insightful and provocative studies of American political thought. This fine collection of essays, tracing themes of friendship and citizenship from classical to contemporary times, and through a broad cross-section of American thinkers, is a testimony to his inspiring influence, and a reminder of the richness of American political theory. -- Michael Lienesch, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction: What Wilson Carey McWilliams Saw in America Part 3 First Things: The Problem of Human Pride Chapter 4 Political Philosophy's Response to the Challenge of Creation Part 5 Friendship and Fraternity: Overcoming Pride Chapter 6 Friendship and Politics: Ancient and American Chapter 7 Politics and Friendship in the Adams-Jefferson Correspondence Chapter 8 Politics and Friendship: Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson Chapter 9 Seeing Differently and Seeing Further: Rousseau and Tocqueville Chapter 10 "Damn Your Eyes!" Thoreau on (Male) Friendship in America Chapter 11 Jane Addams and Democratic Citizenship Part 12 Citizens: Aristocratic and Democratic Chapter 13 The Natural History of Citizenship Chapter 14 Political Parties, the Constitution, and Popular Sovereignty Chapter 15 Lincoln and the Politics of Re-founding Chapter 16 The Ordinary Hero and American Democracy Chapter 17 Wilson Carey McWilliams and Communitarianism Chapter 18 From Community Theory to Democratic Practice Part 19 Conclusion: Virtue and Democracy Chapter 20 Majority Tyranny in Aristotle and Tocqueville
