Civic War and the Corruption of the Citizen (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226522081)

In this unique book, Peter Alexander Meyers leads us through the social processes by which shock incites terror, terror invites war, war invokes emergency, and emergency supports unchecked power. He then reveals how the domestic political culture created by the Cold War has driven these developments forward since 9/11, contending that our failure to acknowledge that this Cold War continues today is precisely what makes it so dangerous. With eloquence and urgency Meyers argues that the mantra of our time--"everything changed on 9/11!"--is false and pernicious. By contrast, Civic War and the Corruption of the Citizen provides a novel account of long-term transformations in the citizen's experience of war, the constitution of political powers, and public uses of communication, and from that firm historical basis explains how a convergence of these social facts became the pretext for unprecedented opportunism and irresponsibility after 9/11. Where others have observed that our rights are under attack, Meyers digs deeper and finds that today "government by the people" itself is at risk. Sparkling with historical and philosophical insight, this is a dramatic diagnosis of the American political scene that at once makes clear the new position of the citizen and the necessity for active citizenship if democracy is to endure.

Author: Peter Alexander Meyers
ISBN-10: 0226522083
ISBN-13: 9780226522081
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 12/15/2008
Pages: 376
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 01/23/2009 pg. 20
Choice 09/01/2009