Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen

by Susan Griffin

Overview

What does is it mean to be a citizen of the United States? Susan Griffin’s provocative investigation of that question takes us from the Declaration of Independence to the Iraq War, with many stops in between. Her conclusion: democracy is nothing less than a revolution of consciousness, and the revolution has just begun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780834825741
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	11/10/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	450 KB

About the Author

Susan Griffin has won dozens of awards for her work as a feminist writer, poet, essayist, playwright, and filmmaker. She is the author of more than twenty books including A Chorus of Stones, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of an Emmy, a MacArthur grant, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and numerous other publications. She lectures widely and is a frequent guest on national and local radio programs. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   ix

1. Liberty   1

2. Yosemite   53

3. Blue Jeans   140

4. Jazz   195

5. Song of Myself   229

6. Round   277

Bibliography   286
About the Author   293

Editorial Reviews

With a light, yet devastating touch, Griffin charts our continued ‘wrestling’ with democratic ideals—her incisive search for the soul of democracy stirs up pride, despair, and hope.”—Booklist, starred review 

“Charming and even lyrical.”—Baltimore Sun

“An intellectually satisfying account that shows through the stories of selected historical personalities and her own life that democracy is, and always will be, a work in progress.”—Foreword Magazine

“Susan Griffin’s superb prose reveals democracy not as a distant abstraction but as a live, inspiring, and difficult presence shaping us every day, an angel all Americans wrestle with.”—George Lakoff, author of Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea

From the Publisher