Not Quite Hope and Other Political Emotions in the Gilded Age

Not Quite Hope and Other Political Emotions in the Gilded Age PDF Author: Nathan Wolff
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198831692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
Not Quite Hope and Other Political Emotions in the Gilded Age argues that late nineteenth-century US fiction grapples with and helps to conceptualize the disagreeable feelings that are both a threat to citizens' agency and an inescapable part of the emotional life of democracy--then as now. In detailing the corruption and venality for which the period remains known, authors including Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Adams, and Helen Hunt Jackson evoked the depressing inefficacy of reform, the lunatic passions of the mob, and the revolting appetites of lobbyists and office seekers. Readers and critics of these Washington novels, historical romances, and satiric romans a clef have denounced these books' fiercely negative tone, seeing it as a sign of cynicism and elitism. Not Quite Hope argues, in contrast, that their distrust of politics is coupled with an intense investment in it: not quite apathy, but not quite hope. Chapters examine both common and idiosyncratic forms of political emotion, including 'crazy love', disgust, cynicism, 'election fatigue', and the myriad feelings of hatred and suspicion provoked by the figure of the hypocrite. In so doing, the book corrects critics' too-narrow focus on 'sympathy' as the American novel's model political emotion. We think of reform novels as fostering feeling for fellow citizens or for specific causes. This volume argues that Gilded Age fiction refocuses attention on the unstable emotions that continue to shape our relation to politics as such.

Democracy's Fourth Wave?

Democracy's Fourth Wave? PDF Author: Philip N. Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199323658
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
Did digital media really "cause" the Arab Spring, or is it an important factor of the story behind what might become democracy's fourth wave? An unlikely network of citizens used digital media to start a cascade of social protest that ultimately toppled four of the world's most entrenched dictators. Howard and Hussain find that the complex causal recipe includes several economic, political and cultural factors, but that digital media is consistently one of the most important sufficient and necessary conditions for explaining both the fragility of regimes and the success of social movements. This book looks at not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the deeper history of creative digital activism throughout the region.

Tweeting to Power

Tweeting to Power PDF Author: Jason Gainous
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199965099
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 207

Book Description
Using theory and data, Gainous and Wagner illustrate how online social media is bypassing traditional media and creating new forums for the exchange of political information and campaigning.

What Happened to the Vital Center?

What Happened to the Vital Center? PDF Author: Nicholas Jacobs
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197603513
Category : Executive power
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
Gradually, the moderating influence that parties played in structuring campaigns and the policy process eroded to the point where extreme polarization dominated and decision-making power migrated to the presidency. Weakened parties were increasingly dominated by presidents and their partnerships with social activists, leading to a gridlocked system characterized by the politics of demonization and demagoguery. Executive-centered parties more easily ignore the sorts of moderating voices that had prevailed in an earlier era. While the Republican Party is more susceptible to the dangers of populism than the Democrats, both parties are animated by a presidency-led, movement-centered vision of democracy. After tracing this history, the authors dismiss calls to return to some bygone era. .

Democracy in Motion

Democracy in Motion PDF Author: Tina Nabatchi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019999613X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Although the field of deliberative civic engagement is growing rapidly around the world, our knowledge and understanding of its practice and impacts remain highly fragmented. Democracy in Motion represents the first comprehensive attempt to assess the practice and impact of deliberative civic engagement. Organized in a series of chapters that address the big questions of deliberative civic engagement, it uses theory, research, and practice from around the world to explore what we know about, how we know it, and what remains to be understood. More than a simple summary of research, the book is designed to be accessible and useful to a wide variety of audiences, from scholars and practitioners working in numerous disciplines and fields, to public officials, activists, and average citizens who are seeking to utilize deliberative civic engagement in their communities. The book significantly enhances current scholarship, serving as a guide to existing research and identifying useful future research. It also has promise for enhancing practice, for example by helping practitioners, public officials, and others better think through and articulate issues of design and outcomes, thus enabling them to garner more support for public deliberation activities. In addition, by identifying what remains to be learned about public deliberation, practitioners and public officials may be inspired to connect with scholars to conduct research and evaluations of their efforts.

Picturesque Literature and the Transformation of the American Landscape, 1835-1874

Picturesque Literature and the Transformation of the American Landscape, 1835-1874 PDF Author: John Evelev
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780192647313
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
This work challenges dominant narratives of the concerns of nineteenth century literature to show how supposedly minor works of picturesque helped transform the American landscape, and create what we now recognize as the defining spaces of American life.

Genre and White Supremacy in the Postemancipation United States

Genre and White Supremacy in the Postemancipation United States PDF Author: Travis M. Foster
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198838093
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
Studies the role popular literature in the systematic racism present in easy-going activities, ordinary feelings, and casual interactions. The volume uncovers this history of 'racial ordinariness' through various genres such as campus novels, Civil War elegies, regionalist sketches, and gospel sermon.

Never Trump

Never Trump PDF Author: Robert P. Saldin
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190880449
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
In early 2016, as it became increasingly apparent that Donald Trump might actually become the Republican nominee, a movement within conservatism formed to stop him: Never Trump. Comprised primarily of Republican policy elites and conservative intellectuals, the Never Trumpers saw Trump's stated views as a repudiation of longstanding Republican foreign and domestic policy goals. Just as importantly, they saw him as erratic, mendacious, and unfit--the sort of person the founders warned about and someone who would bring everlasting shame to the Republican Party. Over the coming months, many well-known and previously influential figures signed on to the Never Trump movement. Of course, their efforts failed, and Trump now dominates the Republican Party like a warlord. As Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles argue in Never Trump, however, the influence of the movement turned out to be much larger than its disappointing impact on the election. For one, it has had an enormous impact on the actual composition of the Trump administration. There has never been a party in the Western World that was elected and sought to govern with such a wide range of intra-party opposition. As Trump supporter Pat Buchanan observed after the election, the Never Trumpers essentially gifted Trump with a readymade enemies list-a list that those in charge of appointments paid close attention to. Trump's picks for a wide range of positions, especially in the area of foreign policy, look vastly different than they would have in any other Republican administration, in large part because so many potential office-holders had declared themselves implacably opposed to Trump. Even more profoundly, the administration found it very difficult--and in many cases impossible--to fill a wide range of positions because all of the plausible candidates for jobs that required technocratic as well as ideological credentials had signed on to Never Trump. Never Trump examines the reasons for this widespread and unprecedented intra-party opposition to Trump, why it took the form it did, and its longer-term consequences.

Anarchism

Anarchism PDF Author: Emma Goldman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anarchism
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Book Description


Interest Groups in American Campaigns

Interest Groups in American Campaigns PDF Author: Mark J. Rozell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199829798
Category : Lobbying
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In today's era of greatly divisive partisanship in Washington, interest groups have become increasingly powerful forces in U.S. politics. In races for the presidency, Congress, and state legislatures, these groups often help to elect--or reelect--candidates who support their causes and views. Now in its third edition, Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering focuses on the key role that interest groups play in U.S. elections. Authors Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, and Michael M. Franz present an extensive analysis based on interviews with interest group leaders, campaign finance filings, and election surveys. Opening with an introduction to the nature of our federal election system, they then examine how interest groups ally themselves with political parties and influence candidate nominations and party platforms. The authors also describe how interest groups interact with political candidates--by contributing money, goods, and services to campaigns--and with their own members and the broader electorate--through social networking, Tweeting, Internet advertising, television ads, direct mail, and phone calls. Throughout the book, diverse and compelling examples clearly illustrate how interest groups operate in the real world. Revised and updated, the third edition of Interest Groups in American Campaigns delves into the 2010 election campaign; recent reforms and campaign finance laws that have substantially changed the roles played by interest groups; and how these recent changes will affect the 2012 races for federal offices.