Talking to Strangers
Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Prologue
Part One: Loss
1: Little Rock, a New Beginning
2: Old Myths and New Epiphanies
3: Sacrifice, a Democratic Fact
4: Sacrifice and Citizenship
Part Two: Why We Have Bad Habits
5: Imperfect Democracy
6: Imperfect People
7: Imperfect Pearls/Imperfect Ideals
Part Three: New Democratic Vistas
8: Beyond Invisible Citizens
9: Brotherhood, Love, and Political Friendship
10: Rhetoric, a Good Thing
Epilogue: Powerful Citizens
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
“Allen understands that democracy originates in the subjective dimension of everyday life, and she focuses on what she calls our ‘habits of citizenship’—the ways we often unconsciously regard and interact with fellow citizens. If democracy resides in ‘the very soul of subjectivity,’ then for Allen subjectivity itself cannot be understood apart from relationships. . . . Borrowing from Aristotle, the solution she proposes is friendship. ‘Only the concept of friendship,’ Allen writes, ‘captures the conjunction of faculties—the orientation toward others, knowledge of the world, developed practices, and psychological effects—that must be activated in democratic citizenship.’”
History: American History
Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature
Political Science: Classic Political Thought | Political and Social Theory
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