Lexington Books
Pages: 182
•
Trim: 6 1/4 x 9 1/4
978-1-4985-7840-0 • Hardback • October 2018 • $90.00 • (£60.00)
978-1-4985-7841-7 • eBook • October 2018 • $85.50 • (£60.00)
Travis D. Smith is associate professor of the Department of Political Science at Concordia University.
Marlene K. Sokolon associate professor of the Department of Political Science at Concordia University.
Chapter 1: Revenge of the Poets: Euripides and the Education of the Dēmos
Chapter 2: Of Villains and Victims: Guilt and Bad Conscience in Richard III
Chapter 3: Only Human: Free Will and Choice in Asimov’s I Robot
Chapter 4: Comedy and Comic Books
Chapter 5: Explaining the Paranoid Style in American Politics: System Disjuncture and Narratives of Fiction
Chapter 6: A Band Of Brothers Against Terrorism: The Citizen-Soldier Ideal in Post-9/11 US Military Mobilization
Chapter 7: Political TV Series: A Case of Unflattering the Demos
Chapter 8: The Problem with the Pitiable Rump: Of Impropriety and Political Philosophy
Sokolon, Smith and the impressive list of contributors to this book take ideas seriously, and see storytelling as a key to understanding political philosophy. Focusing on fictional sources of political thought, they see the democratic imagination of citizens enlivened, even shaped by poetry, narrative storytelling, and other non-traditional forms of literature. This important book, if paired with Thomas Cronin’s Imagining a Great Republic, will change the way we think about political philosophy and democratic citizenship.
— Michael A. Genovese, President, Global Policy Institute, Loyola Marymount University
"All too often in our democratic republic, the task of shaping the tastes, passions, and civic character required for responsible self-government falls not to our schools and educators, but to the 'storytellers' among us. The authors of the literary fiction, television, and cinema that we consume on a daily basis shape the way we think about, and thus act towards, our political institutions, obligations, and identities. Flattering the Demos shows us the dangers inherent in such an enterprise as well as the potential pathways for democratic renewal that storytelling, at its best, affords us."
— Bernard J. Dobski, Assumption College
Sokolon and Smith’s Flattering the Demos is an enchanting read. The editors have taken great care to bring together a quorum of thoughtful authors who offer readers a wide range of approaches that challenge our attitudes towards literature and democratic education. Their collective voices invite readers to revisit a variety of genres, including tragi-comic dramatic plays, comic books and/or graphic novels, short stories, science fiction, film and television miniseries, both old and new.
— VoegelinView