Learning One's Native Tongue : Citizenship, Contestation, and Conflict in America / Tracy B. Strong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strong, Tracy B., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Citizenship--Political aspects--United States.

Citizenship.

Citizenship--United States--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Citizenship is much more than the right to vote. It is a collection of political capacities constantly up for debate. From Socrates to contemporary American politics, the question of what it means to be an authentic citizen is an inherently political one. With Learning One's Native Tongue, Tracy B. Strong explores the development of the concept of American citizenship and what it means to belong to this country, starting with the Puritans in the seventeenth century and continuing to the present day. He examines the conflicts over the meaning of citizenship in the writings and speeches of prominent thinkers and leaders ranging from John Winthrop and Roger Williams to Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Franklin Roosevelt, among many others who have participated in these important cultural and political debates. The criteria that define what being a citizen entails change over time and in response to historical developments, and they are thus also often the source of controversy and conflict, as with voting rights for women and African Americans. Strong looks closely at these conflicts and the ensuing changes in the conception of citizenship, paying attention to what difference each change makes and what each particular conception entails socially and politically.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. FOR WHAT AMERICA? TWO VISIONS

2. TO WHAT DOES ONE AWAKEN?

3. DEFINING BOUNDARIES

4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

5. CIVIL WAR, CITIZENSHIP, AND COLLECTIVITY

6. POPULISM AND SOCIALISM

7. AMERICA MOVES INTO THE WIDER WORLD: THE LABOR MOVEMENT AND THE EXAMPLE OF THE US SR

8. WHITHER PROGRESSIVE POLITICS?

9. THE POLITICS OF "AT HOME" ABROAD

10. WHERE DO ALL THESE S TORIES GO? THE 1960S, THE NEW LEFT , AND BEYOND

11. AT HOME AL ONE: THE PROBLEMS OF CITIZENSHIP IN OUR AGE

INDEX

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226623368

022662336X

OCLC:

1130025596