Description
Book SynopsisHere, Marcus advances the provocative claim that the tradition in democratic theory of treating emotion and reason as hostile opposites is misguided. He argues that sentimental citizens are the only citizens really capable of exercising political judgement.
Trade Review“George Marcus deserves thanks and praise for reminding us that emotional communication and arousal are the lifeblood of politics. Leaders who ignore the primacy of voters’ feelings are doomed to failure. Voters and political scientists who imagine that politics is a question of purely ‘rational choice’ are bound to be astonished by what actually happens. To gain a better understanding of how our emotions shape contemporary politics, this volume is must reading.”
—Roger D. Masters,Dartmouth College
“Why use a neuro-scientific account to explain something as contextual and multifaceted as political judgment? As Marcus persuasively argues, doing so allows us to examine the domain of perceptual existence that isn't fully conscious, yet is present in a way that meaningfully influences our thinking and our actions. His analysis of what this means for democratic politics is careful and intriguing. This nuanced account of how preconscious emotions play a role in creating and sustaining the conditions for reason should be read by all political scientists skeptical of citizen judgment.”
—Susan Bickford,University of North Carolina
“This book is a must-read for all involved in the study of human political behavior.”
—P. Kriese Choice
“This last point may serve to illuminate one of the greatest strengths of this book, namely, that The Sentimental Citizen offers us a powerful-indeed nearly irresistible-metaphor for who and what we are.
Indeed Marcus’s book can be seen as engaging in some elegant rhetorical maneuvers: it is not only a straightforward statement of a neuroscientific thesis: its action upon the reader illustrates the author’s own proposition. That is, the reader becomes, like the mind described in the book, a helpless witness to the emotional systems that surround him or her.”
—James Martel Political Theory
