
That Is Not Who We Are! Populism and Peoplehood Rogers M. Smith
- Price: £26.00
- Add to Basket
Share this page:
- Series:
- Castle Lecture Series
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication date:
- 11 Aug 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300229394
- Imprint:
- Yale University Press
- Dimensions:
- 176 pages: 216 x 140 x 17mm
- Illustrations:
- 4 b-w illus.
- Sales territories:
- World
Categories:
How can liberals offer “stories of peoplehood” that can compete with illiberal populist and nationalist stories?
Rogers Smith has long argued for the importance of “stories of peoplehood” in constituting political communities. By enabling a people to tell others and themselves who they are, such stories establish the people’s identity and values and guide its actions. They can promote national unity and unity of groups within and across nations. Smith argues that nationalist populists have done a better job than liberals in providing stories of peoplehood that advance their worldview: the nation as ethnically defined, threatened by enemies, and blameless for its troubles, which come from its victimization by malign elites and foreigners. Liberals need to offer their own stories expressing more inclusive values. Analyzing three liberal stories of peoplehood—those of John Dewey, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln—Smith argues that all have value and all are needed, though he sees Lincoln’s, based on the Declaration of Independence, as the most promising.
Rogers Smith has long argued for the importance of “stories of peoplehood” in constituting political communities. By enabling a people to tell others and themselves who they are, such stories establish the people’s identity and values and guide its actions. They can promote national unity and unity of groups within and across nations. Smith argues that nationalist populists have done a better job than liberals in providing stories of peoplehood that advance their worldview: the nation as ethnically defined, threatened by enemies, and blameless for its troubles, which come from its victimization by malign elites and foreigners. Liberals need to offer their own stories expressing more inclusive values. Analyzing three liberal stories of peoplehood—those of John Dewey, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln—Smith argues that all have value and all are needed, though he sees Lincoln’s, based on the Declaration of Independence, as the most promising.
Rogers M. Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as president of the American Political Science Association in 2018–2019.
"Rogers Smith brings decades of distinguished scholarship to bear on competing narratives of national identity, around the world and in the United States. In That Is Not Who We Are!, he offers a hopeful message: we need not choose between inclusive and emotionally resonant accounts of who we are."—William A. Galston, author of Anti-Pluralism
“A beautiful work of civic scholarship. Staring down the resurgence of reactionary populism, Rogers Smith offers a transformative, egalitarian story of U.S. peoplehood—one inviting us to become a better version of ourselves.”—Jack Turner, author of Awakening to Race: Individualism and Social Consciousness in America
“A beautiful work of civic scholarship. Staring down the resurgence of reactionary populism, Rogers Smith offers a transformative, egalitarian story of U.S. peoplehood—one inviting us to become a better version of ourselves.”—Jack Turner, author of Awakening to Race: Individualism and Social Consciousness in America
-
The War of Words
Harold James£20.00 -
A World after Liberalism
Matthew Rose£20.00 -
Constitutional Processes and Democratic Commitment
Donald L. Horowitz£40.00 -
After Democracy
Zizi Papacharissi£20.00 -
Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes
Steven B. Smith£25.00 -
On Democracy
Robert A. Dahl£14.99 -
An Open World
Rebecca Lissner£20.00 -
Taking Back the Constitution
Mark Tushnet£25.00 -
Responsible Parties
Frances McCall Rosenbluth£15.00 -
The People’s Revolt
Gregg Cantrell£30.00 -
City on a Hill
Abram C. Van Engen£25.00 -
Why Liberalism Works
Deirdre Nansen McCloskey£20.00 -
The Great Delusion
John J. Mearsheimer£14.99 -
How to Rig an Election
Nic Cheeseman£9.99 -
Athens
Thomas N. Mitchell£12.99 -
Why Liberalism Failed
Patrick J. Deneen£12.99 -
The Postwar Moment
Isser Woloch£30.00 -
Responsible Parties
Frances McCall Rosenbluth£20.00 -
Hubert Humphrey
Arnold A. Offner£25.00
-
Constitutional Processes and Democratic Commitment
Donald L. Horowitz£40.00 -
The Hidden Face of Rights
Kathryn Sikkink£20.00 -
African States Since Independence
Darin Christensen£35.00 -
The Democratic Faith
Paul M. Sniderman£25.00 -
The Moral Economy
Samuel Bowles£16.99 -
The Question of Intervention
Michael W. Doyle£25.00 -
Hollywood Westerns and American Myth
Robert B. Pippin£25.00 -
How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
Robert A. Dahl£14.99 -
On Toleration
Michael Walzer£15.00