Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership / Edition 1

by Rogers M. Smith

Overview

How is a sense of belonging to a political community created? Rogers Smith suggests that Stories of Peoplehood, narratives which include racial, religious, ethnic and cultural elements, serve to make membership of a political group part of an individual's identity. He argues that competition over accounts of a nation's history and culture is thus an important part of political life. Examples from around the world since the 18th century are included. In particular, Smith traces the history of competing conceptions of national identity and citizenship in the United States from the revolution to the present day, showing the tension between liberal and egalitarian ideals, and traditions of racism and chauvinism. Combining theory with rich historical detail, Smith's book is an original and provocative account of how national identity is forged. Rogers M. Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Smith centers his research on contitutional law, American political thought, and modern legal and political theory, with special interests in questions of citizenship, race, ethnicity and gender. His previous books include, Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History (Yale, 1997) and Liberalism and American Constitutional Law (Harvard, 1985).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521520034
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/19/2003
Series:	Contemporary Political Theory
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Rogers M. Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published over seventy articles and is author or co-author of the following books: The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America (with Philip A. Klinkner, 1990); Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History (1997); Citizenship without Consent: The Illegal Alien in the American Polity (with Peter H. Schuck, 1985); and Liberalism and American Constitutional Law (1985, rev. ed. 1990).

Table of Contents

Introduction: on studying stories of peoplehood; Part I. Explaining the Political Role of Stories of Peoplehood: 1. Elements of a theory of people-making; 2. The role of ethically constitutive stories; Part II. Constructing Political Peoplehood in Morally Defensible Ways: 3. Ethically constitutive stories and norms of allegiance; 4. A pioneering people.

Editorial Reviews

Behind nations, states, regions, and other political groupings lies the notion of a distinct "people" who share a common identity and are bound together by rights and obligations. In this important inquiry into the sources and changing character of political community, Smith argues that the "we" in "we the people" does not emerge organically from particular economic, territorial, demographic, ancestral, linguistic, or cultural circumstances. Rather, it is constructed through interactions between leaders and followers who tell stories of blood and inheritance in the search for a stable and legitimate organization of authority. Smith ambitiously claims that a universal logic lurks behind such projects. Sampling widely across eras and regions, he explores the processes by which a shared sense of political "peoplehood" is generated and sustained and ends with a reflection on the dilemmas and normative implications of the process. Strong perceptions of peoplehood, he notes, can foster democracy and self-determination but also unleash chauvinism, racism, and violence. Smith finds some hope, however, in the stories of American history, which offer open, inclusive, and expanding narratives of political community.

Foreign Affairs

"[A]n exceptional starting point for dialogue regarding the relative health of American democracy and what might be done to reinvigorate it." Brian J. Gerber, Texas Tech University, Political Science Quarterly

"Rogers Smith's fresh and incisive intervention in debates about national solidarity exemplifies the combination of historical depth and theoretical acuity that have made Smith one of the most respected and influential political scientists of his generation." David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley, author of Postethnic America

"This well-researched and provocatively argued work will interest theorists and students of comparative and American politics. Highly recommended." Choice

"In a book of formidable erudition and learning, Smith succeeds brilliantly in reviewing the vast literature on nationalism, reformulating it into a highly innovative and important thesis about peoplehood and demonstrating the analytical purchase of the derived 'ethically constitutive stories' as an approach to building better societies. Written in elegant prose, Smith's argument is illustrated with a dazzling array of examples, historical and contemporary, imagined and real. Many social scientists declaim the need for scholarship engaged with real political and social problems but few succeed as impressively as Rogers Smith does here. This is political science for our times, applying rigorous analysis to compelling moral challenges. I cannot recommend this book too strongly..." Desmond S. King, Oxford University

From the Publisher