Good Neighbors

The Democracy of Everyday Life in America

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Political, Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Cover of the book Good Neighbors by Nancy L. Rosenblum, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Nancy L. Rosenblum ISBN: 9781400881314
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: May 17, 2016
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Nancy L. Rosenblum
ISBN: 9781400881314
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: May 17, 2016
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

"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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"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.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Against Security by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Europeanization of the World by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Greece--a Jewish History by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Kierkegaard's Writings, IV, Part II: Either/Or: Part II by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book On War and Democracy by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Law as Culture by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Irresistible Fairy Tale by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book "Keep the Damned Women Out" by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Hitler's American Model by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Origin Then and Now by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Workers' Tales by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Public Goods, Private Goods by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Politics and the Passions, 1500-1850 by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy by Nancy L. Rosenblum
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy