Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy

Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy PDF Author: Kyle G. Volk
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199371911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This work unearths the origins of popular minority-rights politics in American history. Focusing on controversies spurred by grassroots moral reform in the early 19th century, it shows how a motley array of self-understood minorities reshaped American democracy as they battled laws regulating Sabbath observance, alcohol, and interracial contact.

Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy

Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy PDF Author: Kyle G. Volk
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199371911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This work unearths the origins of popular minority-rights politics in American history. Focusing on controversies spurred by grassroots moral reform in the early 19th century, it shows how a motley array of self-understood minorities reshaped American democracy as they battled laws regulating Sabbath observance, alcohol, and interracial contact.

Empire, Capitalism, and Democracy

Empire, Capitalism, and Democracy PDF Author: Kyle G. Volk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781793576927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Empire, Capitalism, and Democracy: The Early American Experience documents the history of the United States from the opening of the Atlantic World to the post-Civil War era. Featuring a curated collection of primary sources, the text illustrates three interdependent forces that animated the history of early America: empire, capitalism, and democracy. Part I explores the origins of European contact with America, Indigenous civilizations, and the Atlantic slave trade. In Part II, sources address American independence from British rule, early ideas of liberty and equality, the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and the first years of American government. The final part speaks to key issues that divided Americans in the nineteenth century, including market revolution, slavery, western expansion, and ideas of freedom and democracy after the Civil War. The second edition features an increased focus on Indigenous experiences and includes 10 new readings. The book also includes fully updated introductions for each chapter. Accessible and enlightening, Empire, Capitalism, and Democracy is an ideal collection for foundational courses in U.S. history.

Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy

Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy PDF Author: Kyle G. Volk
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190609494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This work unearths the origins of popular minority-rights politics in American history. Focusing on controversies spurred by grassroots moral reform in the early 19th century, it shows how a motley array of self-understood minorities reshaped American democracy as they battled laws regulating Sabbath observance, alcohol, and interracial contact.

Democracy in Black

Democracy in Black PDF Author: Eddie S. Glaude (Jr.)
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0804137412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"A polemic on the state of black America that argues that we don't yet live in a post-racial society"--

The Moral Basis of Democracy

The Moral Basis of Democracy PDF Author: Eleanor Roosevelt
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497663652
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
A wartime manifesto on the moral obligations of democratic citizens from the most influential first lady in American history. With the threat of the Third Reich looming, Eleanor Roosevelt employs the history of human rights to establish the idea that at the core of democracy is a spiritual responsibility to other citizens. Roosevelt then calls on all Americans, especially the youth, to prioritize the well-being of others and have faith that their fellow citizens will protect them in return. She defines this trust between people as a trait of true democracy. Roosevelt advances an optimistic model for the democracy of the future, and although we’ve taken some steps in the direction of her vision, it’s still a long way from reality. The issues first addressed in this 1940 essay—namely financial inequality and racial discrimination—are sadly still relevant today, as bigotry continues to undermine our national unity. Her first publication as first lady, The Moral Basis of Democracy is an honest and heartfelt call for all Americans to choose love and faith over hatred and fear. Roosevelt takes an inspiring stance in defense of democracy, progress, and morality; the wisdom imparted here is timeless, and a must-read for every American. This edition features a foreword by Rev. Carol Howard Merritt, an introduction by Roosevelt historian Allida Black, PhD, and an illustrated biography of Eleanor Roosevelt including images from the author’s estate.

Democracy in America (Complete)

Democracy in America (Complete) PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1613105002
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1320

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Book Description
Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed. I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated. I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined that I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New World presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is daily progressing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have reached in the United States, and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe. I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader. It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on amongst us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and consequences. To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history. Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when the territory was divided amongst a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man, and landed property was the sole source of power. Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and began to exert itself: the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the poor and the rich, the villein and the lord; equality penetrated into the Government through the Church, and the being who as a serf must have vegetated in perpetual bondage took his place as a priest in the midst of nobles, and not infrequently above the heads of kings. The different relations of men became more complicated and more numerous as society gradually became more stable and more civilized. Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail. Whilst the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in State affairs. The transactions of business opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political influence in which he was at once flattered and despised. Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science became a means of government, intelligence led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the State. The value attached to the privileges of birth decreased in the exact proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and equality was thus introduced into the Government by the aristocracy itself.

The Making of American Democracy

The Making of American Democracy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description


Extraordinary Politics

Extraordinary Politics PDF Author: Charles Euchner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429969163
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Political protest and social movementstheir history; their cyclical development; their organization, strategies, and tacticsconstitute what Charles Euchner calls extraordinary politics, an antidote to the breakdown of politics-as-usual and a necessary, if not sufficient, condition of democracy. Activists have set the pace on every conceivable issue, including the environment, gay rights, feminism, abortion, states rights, religion, and multiculturalism. The president and Congress can barely keep up, but extraordinary politics keeps evolving. With style and grace, the author weaves together hundreds of examples drawn from movements spanning the ideological spectrum to offer both a practical and intellectual guidebook to political activism in a reputedly apathetic age, embracing with abandon the art of making a difference. }When dissidents and activists toppled powerful regimes across the globe in the 1980s and 1990sfrom the Soviet Union to South Africa, from Nicaragua to the Philippineshow did Americans respond to challenges in their own country? The conventional wisdom is that Americans sullenly withdrew from all manner of political action. But in fact, activists of all backgrounds took to the streets to challenge ordinary structures of politics.These movementstheir history; their cyclical development; their organization, strategies, and tacticsconstitute what the author calls extraordinary politics. Activists have set the pace on every conceivable issue, including the environment, gay rights, feminism, abortion, states rights, religion, and multiculturalism. The president and Congress can barely keep up, but extraordinary politics keeps evolving.With style and grace, Charles Euchner weaves together hundreds of examples drawn from movements spanning the ideological spectrum to offer both a practical and intellectual guidebook to political activism in a reputedly apathetic age, embracing with abandon the art of making a difference. }

How Democracies Die

How Democracies Die PDF Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1524762946
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

Making Americans

Making Americans PDF Author: Desmond King
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Specifically, the debates in the three decades leading up to 1929 were conceived in terms of desirable versus undesirable immigrants. This not only cemented judgements about specific European groups but reinforced prevailing biases against groups already present in the United States, particularly African Americans, whose inferior status and second-class citizenship - enshrined in Jim Crow laws and embedded in pseudo-scientific arguments about racial classifications - appear to have been consolidated in these decades, Although the values of different groups have always been recognised in the United States, King gives the most thorough account yet of how eugenic arguments were used to establish barriers and to favour an Anglo-Saxon conception of American identity, rejecting claims of other traditions. thus the immigration controversy emerges here as a significant precursor to recent multicultural debates.