- The Demands of Liberty
- Pierre Rosanvallon
- Translated by Arthur Goldhammer
- Rosanvallon offers a radical new interpretation of the development of democracy in France and the relationship between the government and its citizens. Arguing that the French have cherished and demonized Jacobinism at the same time--their hearts following Robespierre, but their heads turning toward Benjamin Constant--The Demands of Liberty traces the long history of resistance to Jacobinism, including the creation of associations and unions and the implementation of elements of decentralization.
- Hardcover 2007
- The Dissent of the Governed
- Stephen L. Carter
- Between loyalty and disobedience; between recognition of the law's authority and realization that the law is not always right: in America, this conflict is historic, with results as glorious as the mass protests of the civil rights movement and as inglorious as the armed violence of the militia movement. In an impassioned defense of dissent, Stephen Carter argues for the dialogue that negotiates this conflict and keeps democracy alive. His book portrays an America dying from a refusal to engage in such a dialogue, a polity where, indeed, everybody speaks, but nobody listens.
- Hardcover 1998 / Paperback 1999
- The Meiji Unification through the Lens of Ishikawa Prefecture
- James C. Baxter
- Credit for the swift unification of Japan following the 1868 overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate is usually given to the national leaders. In this book, James Baxter argues that brilliant leadership at the top is not sufficient to explain how regional separatist tendencies and loyalties to the old lords were overcome in the formation of a nationally unified state.
- Hardcover
- Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834
- Charles Tilly
- Between 1750 and 1840 ordinary British people abandoned such time-honored forms of protest as collective seizures of grain, the sacking of buildings, public humiliation, and physical abuse in favor of marches, petition drives, public meetings, and other sanctioned routines of social movement politics. Charles Tilly is the first to address the depth and significance of the transmutations in popular collective action during this period.
- Hardcover 1998
- Public Philosophy
- Michael J. Sandel
- Liberals often worry that inviting moral and religious argument into the public sphere runs the risk of intolerance and coercion. These essays respond to that concern by showing that substantive moral discourse is not at odds with progressive public purposes, and that a pluralist society need not shrink from engaging the moral and religious convictions that its citizens bring to public life.
- Hardcover 2005 / Paperback 2006
- The Return of Civil Society
- Víctor Pérez-Díaz
- Víctor Pérez-Díaz examines the return of civil society in Spain. He covers the transition of Spain from a preindustrial economy, an authoritarian government, and a Roman Catholic-dominated culture to a modern state based on the interaction of economic and class interests, on a market society, on voluntary associations such as trade unions and political parties, and on a culture of moral autonomy and rationality.
- Paperback 1998 / Hardcover
- Why Societies Need Dissent
- Cass R. Sunstein
- In this timely book, Sunstein shows that organizations and nations are far more likely to prosper if they welcome dissent and promote openness. Attacking "political correctness" in all forms, Sunstein demonstrates that corporations, legislatures, even presidents are likely to blunder if they do not cultivate a culture of candor and disclosure. He shows that unjustified extremism, including violence and terrorism, often results from failure to tolerate dissenting views.
- Hardcover 2003 / Paperback 2005