Political peoplehood : the roles of values, interests, and identities / Rogers M. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Rogers M., 1953- author.

Contributor:

Meral Ugur, Cinar, Contributor.

Rogers M., Smith, Contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political culture.

Political sociology.

Group identity.

Political psychology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (323 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, [2015]

Summary:

For more than three decades, Rogers M. Smith has been one of the leading scholars of the role of ideas in American politics, policies, and history. Over time, he has developed the concept of “political peoples,” a category that is much broader and more fluid than legal citizenship, enabling Smith to offer rich new analyses of political communities, governing institutions, public policies, and moral debates. This book gathers Smith’s most important writings on peoplehood to build a coherent theoretical and historical account of what peoplehood has meant in American political life, informed by frequent comparisons to other political societies. From the revolutionary-era adoption of individual rights rhetoric to today’s battles over the place of immigrants in a rapidly diversifying American society, Smith shows how modern America’s growing embrace of overlapping identities is in tension with the providentialism and exceptionalism that continue to make up so much of what many believe it means to be an American. A major work that brings a lifetime of thought to bear on questions that are as urgent now as they have ever been, Political Peoplehood will be essential reading for social scientists, political philosophers, policy analysts, and historians alike.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: On Studying Stories of Political Peoplehood

Part One. Theorizing Peoplehood

One. Stories of Peoplehood and the Spiral of Politics

Two. A Theory of the Politics of People Building

Three. Narrative Structures and the Politics of Peoplehood

Four. Personal Stories and Communal Stories in the Politics of Peoplehood

Part two. Exploring American Peoplehood

Five. Individual Rights in American Stories of Peoplehood

Six. Contesting Meaning and Membership in American Peoplehood

Part three. Moderating Peoplehood

Seven. From Providentialism and Exceptionalism to a Politics of Moderate Peoplehood

Eight. The American “Promiseland” and Mexican Immigrants

Nine. Multiple Citizenships and the Legacies of Imperialism

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-302) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226285122

022628512X

OCLC:

1233041767