Teresa M. Bejan is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Oriel College.
Penetrating and sophisticated.
*New York Times Book Review*
Mere Civility is centered in the years after the Reformation, when
the emergence of myriad Protestant sects splintered communities
across Western Europe. That splintering was magnified, just as in
our own time, by the explosion of a new means of communication—the
printing press—which allowed people who had never before had a
public voice to spread their ideas far and wide. Invectives and
broadsides were the order of the day, as members of different
religious denominations fought for each other’s souls, and
incivility became a central concern of political thought. I doubt
that for most readers of Mere Civility, this account of social
disarray in the Reformation years is a huge surprise. But by
keeping a tight focus on the concept of civility, Bejan manages to
make that old story feel new—or at least to draw new lessons from
it, lessons that are particularly interesting within the context of
contemporary political theory… [Mere Civility] does not purport to
solve the problems of incivility, but it unknots them, making the
nature of the problems—both in general and in this time of numbing
nostalgia—more evident. Would that more of us might learn to look
into the past with such gravity and humility. We might end up with
a more (or mere) civil society, yet.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
A deeply admirable book: original, persuasive, witty, and eloquent.
It is also admirably, bracingly, skeptical, in the best sense: the
kind of liberal skepticism that we associate in political theory
with Judith Shklar, Bernard Williams, and George Kateb.
*Review of Politics*
Bejan’s important book is beautifully written, cogently argued, and
provocative. It foregrounds the matter of ‘civility’ with astute
historical analysis of touchstone texts in political thought.
*Jeffrey Collins, Queens University*
Mere Civility is a terrific book—learned, vigorous, and
challenging. Bejan makes Roger Williams the hero of this story and
the thinker who provides a principled justification for America’s
exceptional permissiveness toward ‘uncivil’ speech. Justifying the
American status quo isn’t easy. Doing it with arguments that are
often surprising is even harder.
*Alison McQueen, Stanford University*
This carefully argued and documented volume documents three early
modern understandings of civility, offering that of Rhode Island’s
founder, Roger Williams, as a fitting response to our perceived
crisis of civility.
*Choice*
Impressive.
*Claremont Review of Books*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
