Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America

Nancy L. Rosenblum; Nancy L. Rosenblum

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Good Neighbors

The Democracy of Everyday Life in America

Nancy L. Rosenblum and Nancy L. Rosenblum

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2016

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About this book

How our everyday interactions as neighbors shape—and sometimes undermine—democracy

"Love thy neighbor" is an impossible exhortation. Good neighbors greet us on the street and do small favors, but neighbors also startle us with sounds at night and unleash their demons on us, they monitor and reproach us, and betray us to authorities. The moral principles prescribed for friendship, civil society, and democratic public life apply imperfectly to life around home, where we interact day to day without the formal institutions, rules of conduct, and means of enforcement that guide us in other settings.

In Good Neighbors, Nancy Rosenblum explores how encounters among neighbors create a democracy of everyday life, which has been with us since the beginning of American history and is expressed in settler, immigrant, and suburban narratives and in novels, poetry, and popular culture. During disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, the democracy of everyday life is a resource for neighbors who improvise rescue and care. Degraded, this framework can give way to betrayal by neighbors, as faced by the Japanese Americans interned during World War II, or to terrible violence such as the lynching of African Americans. Under extreme conditions the barest act of neighborliness is a bulwark against total ethical breakdown. The elements of the democracy of everyday life—reciprocity, speaking out, and "live and let live"—comprise a democratic ideal not reducible to public principles of justice or civic virtue, but it is no less important. The democracy of everyday life, Rosenblum argues, is the deep substrate of democracy in America and can be its saving remnant.

Author / Editor information

Nancy L. Rosenblum is the Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University. Her books include On the Side of the Angels and Membership and Morals (both Princeton).

Reviews

"A creative and enlightening book on neighbors, democratic public life, and the rigors and toxins of politics in America."---Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice --- "Rosenblum's book is an accessible, always interesting, narrative-filled theoretical engagement. Whether one agrees or disagrees, the journey is nuanced, insightful and original."---P.E. Digeser, Perspectives on Politics --- "[Rosenblum] draws on a wide range of historical, literary, and sociological sources--from the stories of Raymond Carver to an ethnography of Crown Heights, Brooklyn--to produce a kaleidoscopic picture of American neighborliness."---Joshua Rothman, New Yorker --- "One of Spirituality and Practice's 50 Best Spirituality Books of 2018"

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Good Neighbor Nation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
PART I. The Lay of the Land
1. Who Is My Neighbor? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	23
2. Narrative Threads: Settlers, Immigrants, and Suburban “Grotesques” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	44
PART II. The Democracy of Everyday Life
3. Reciprocity among “Decent Folk” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	71
4. Taking Offense, Speaking Out Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	91
5. What Anyone Would Do, Here Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	108
6. Live and Let Live Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	131
PART III. Holding Our Lives in Their Hands
7. Betrayal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	153
8. Killing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	174
9. Disasters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	200
PART IV. Minding Our Own Business
10. Thoreau’s Neighbors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	219
Conclusion: Political Theory and the Democracy of Everyday Life in America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	234
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	249
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	251
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	293

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

June 6, 2016

eBook ISBN:

9781400881314

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400881314

eBook ISBN: 9781400881314

Keywords for this book

Everyday life; Consideration; Politics; Democracy in America; African Americans; Etiquette; My Neighbor; Cruelty; Hostility; Lynching; Generosity; Prejudice; Princeton University Press; Exclusion; Institution; Collective action; Injunction; Vulnerability; Racism; Civil society; Humiliation; Activism; Moral psychology; Narrative; Harper Lee; Internment; Disaster; Suburb; Acquiescence; Voluntary association; Civility; Nuisance; Neighbourhood effect; Discrimination; Sociology; Despotism; Suggestion; Well-being; Social science; Debt; Political philosophy; Americans; Walden Pond; Puritans; Income; World War II; Public policy; Due process; Illegal immigration; National security; Explanation; Accountability; Homeowner association; Uncertainty; Suffering; Determination; Raymond Carver; Deference; Racial segregation; Civic virtue; Philosophy; Liberal democracy; Resentment; Localism (politics); Obstacle; Fellow; Popular culture; Affair; Rescuer; Philosopher

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Good Neighbors

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data