The Truth about Patriotism

The Truth about Patriotism PDF Author: Steven Johnston
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822390493
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
The Truth about Patriotism is a bracing repudiation of the claim that patriotism is essential—or even beneficial—to democracy. Contending that even at its best patriotism subverts the democracy it purports to value, Steven Johnston turns to patriotism’s defenders to show how they must jettison much of democracy to champion patriotism. Closely examined, patriotism itself effectively demonstrates the impossibility of love of country. Patriotism, Johnston argues, tends toward narcissistic self-regard, blind to its violent ways of being in the world and its dependence on death. Thus we would be better off without it. Drawing largely from aspects of American political and popular culture, this wide-ranging book presents a wealth of examples to disclose patriotism’s self-defeating character. They include Richard Rorty’s and John Schaar’s enmity-driven love of country, Socrates’s angry judicial suicide, the violent obsessions of High Noon and Saving Private Ryan, the triumphalist self-display of the World War II Memorial, Oliver Stone’s and Don DeLillo’s spectacular representations of the assassination of President Kennedy, George W. Bush’s symbolic sacrifice of more Americans in commemoration of September 2001, and yet other memorials to and apologies for patriotism. Ultimately, Johnston calls for a vision of democracy that uses the tragic possibilities inherent in politics as a spur to a life-affirming civic ethos of reciprocal generosity.

The Truth about Patriotism

The Truth about Patriotism PDF Author: Steven Johnston
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822390493
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Truth about Patriotism is a bracing repudiation of the claim that patriotism is essential—or even beneficial—to democracy. Contending that even at its best patriotism subverts the democracy it purports to value, Steven Johnston turns to patriotism’s defenders to show how they must jettison much of democracy to champion patriotism. Closely examined, patriotism itself effectively demonstrates the impossibility of love of country. Patriotism, Johnston argues, tends toward narcissistic self-regard, blind to its violent ways of being in the world and its dependence on death. Thus we would be better off without it. Drawing largely from aspects of American political and popular culture, this wide-ranging book presents a wealth of examples to disclose patriotism’s self-defeating character. They include Richard Rorty’s and John Schaar’s enmity-driven love of country, Socrates’s angry judicial suicide, the violent obsessions of High Noon and Saving Private Ryan, the triumphalist self-display of the World War II Memorial, Oliver Stone’s and Don DeLillo’s spectacular representations of the assassination of President Kennedy, George W. Bush’s symbolic sacrifice of more Americans in commemoration of September 2001, and yet other memorials to and apologies for patriotism. Ultimately, Johnston calls for a vision of democracy that uses the tragic possibilities inherent in politics as a spur to a life-affirming civic ethos of reciprocal generosity.

The True Patriot

The True Patriot PDF Author: Eric Liu
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
ISBN: 1570618704
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
An essential read for both progressives and conservatives, this ‘little red book’ challenges modern patriotism, calling for a return to the ideals on which our democracy was founded Over the course of a generation, patriotism in America has been hijacked by the right and abandoned by the left. But the principles and values of true patriotism—country above self, contribution above consumption, stewardship over exploitation, freedom with responsibility, purpose through sacrifice and service, pragmatism, a fair shot for all—are inherently progressive. Written in the pamphleteering style of Thomas Paine (Common Sense), The True Patriot challenges progressives to reclaim patriotism and spells out just how to do it. This powerful and timely “little red book” combines a manifesto, a ten-principle plan, a model speech, and a moral code. Throughout, it weaves between the words of the authors and excerpts from foundational American texts and speeches, as well as a parade of iconic American images.

The Truth about Patriotism

The Truth about Patriotism PDF Author: Steven Johnston
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822341109
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
DIVCritique of the role of patriotism in democratic theory and its manifestation in popular culture as a mode of conceptualizing national cohesion./div

After Nationalism

After Nationalism PDF Author: Samuel Goldman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812296451
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Nationalism is on the rise across the Western world, serving as a rallying cry for voters angry at the unacknowledged failures of globalization that has dominated politics and economics since the end of the Cold War. In After Nationalism, Samuel Goldman trains a sympathetic but skeptical eye on the trend, highlighting the deep challenges that face any contemporary effort to revive social cohesion at the national level. Noting the obstacles standing in the way of basing any unifying political project on a singular vision of national identity, Goldman highlights three pillars of mid-twentieth-century nationalism, all of which are absent today: the social dominance of Protestant Christianity, the absorption of European immigrants in a broader white identity, and the defense of democracy abroad. Most of today's nationalists fail to recognize these necessary underpinnings of any renewed nationalism, or the potentially troubling consequences that they would engender. To secure the general welfare in a new century, the future of American unity lies not in monolithic nationalism. Rather, Goldman suggests we move in the opposite direction: go small, embrace difference as the driving characteristic of American society, and support political projects grounded in local communities.

Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes

Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes PDF Author: Steven B. Smith
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300258704
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
A rediscovery of patriotism as a virtue in line with the core values of democracy in an extremist age The concept of patriotism has fallen on hard times. What was once a value that united Americans has become so politicized by both the left and the right that it threatens to rip apart the social fabric. On the right, patriotism has become synonymous with nationalism and an “us versus them” worldview, while on the left it is seen as an impediment to acknowledging important ethnic, religious, or racial identities and a threat to cosmopolitan globalism. Steven B. Smith reclaims patriotism from these extremist positions and advocates for a patriotism that is broad enough to balance loyalty to country against other loyalties. Describing how it is a matter of both the head and the heart, Smith shows how patriotism can bring the country together around the highest ideals of equality and is a central and ennobling disposition that democratic societies cannot afford to do without.

The True Patriot

The True Patriot PDF Author: Eric Liu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780979718908
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description


What Unites Us

What Unites Us PDF Author: Dan Rather
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616207841
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I find myself thinking deeply about what it means to love America, as I surely do.” —Dan Rather At a moment of crisis over our national identity, venerated journalist Dan Rather has emerged as a voice of reason and integrity, reflecting on—and writing passionately about—what it means to be an American. Now, with this collection of original essays, he reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us, from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine, Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions. With a fundamental sense of hope, What Unites Us is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one.

Un-American

Un-American PDF Author: John J. Pitney
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538129264
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
A Scathing Indictment of Donald Trump on the Eve of the 2020 Election Un-American? President Donald J. Trump has been called many names, but how can this term apply to a candidate and president whose slogan is “make America great again?” How can such a term apply to the “America First” president? In this book, John J. Pitney Jr., one of America’s most incisive conservative commentators exposes a core irony of Trump’s presidency: that a man who is quick to question the patriotism of his critics is himself deeply unpatriotic. Pitney argues that real Americanism is about ideas and ideals: truth, equality, the rule of law, patriotic service, and the hope that America can serve as an example to the rest of the world. By words and actions, Trump has disparaged all of these things. Through an examination of his record, this book tells how Trump subverts genuine American greatness.

The True Patriot

The True Patriot PDF Author: Eric Liu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781570615573
Category : Patriotism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The author's thoughts on politics and patriotism, with a selection of patriotic images and speeches from American history.

Why America Fights

Why America Fights PDF Author: Susan A. Brewer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199753962
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Why America Fights explores how the U.S. government has sold war aims designed to rally public support throughout the 20th century.