Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America - Hardcover

Stout, Jeffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069113586X ISBN 13: 9780691135861

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2010

Synopsis

In an America where the rich and fortunate have free rein to do as they please, can the ideal of liberty and justice for all be anything but an empty slogan? Many Americans are doubtful, and have withdrawn into apathy and cynicism. But thousands of others are not ready to give up on democracy just yet. Working outside the notice of the national media, ordinary citizens across the nation are meeting in living rooms, church basements, synagogues, and schools to identify shared concerns, select and cultivate leaders, and take action. Their goal is to hold big government and big business accountable. In this important new book, Jeffrey Stout bears witness to the successes and failures of progressive grassroots organizing, and the daunting forces now arrayed against it.

Stout tells vivid stories of people fighting entrenched economic and political interests around the country. From parents and teachers striving to overcome gang violence in South Central Los Angeles, to a Latino priest north of the Rio Grande who brings his parish into a citizens' organization, to the New Orleans residents who get out the vote by taking a jazz band through streets devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Stout describes how these ordinary people conceive of citizenship, how they acquire and exercise power, and how religious ideas and institutions contribute to their successes.

The most important book on organizing and grassroots democracy in a generation, Blessed Are the Organized is a passionate and hopeful account of how our endangered democratic principles can be put into action.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"The subject of civil society ranks among the most important topics of contemporary democracy. Jeffrey Stout treats this subject in a manner that is original, bold, and saturated with concrete detail. This is an important book for all friends of democracy around the world."--Adam Michnik, author of Letters from Prison and Other Essays

"Democracy, as Jeffrey Stout shows us, is hard work: a tireless, contestatory struggle to make government responsible and to gain recognition and satisfaction for the civically deprived. Channeling the voices of those engaged in this struggle, Stout forces us to rethink our ideas about citizenship and democracy."--Philip Pettit, coauthor ofA Political Philosophy in Public Life

"Blessed Are the Organized matches or exceeds its author's previous prize-winning books. I am in awe at how well Jeffrey Stout has transitioned from philosophy of religion to ethnographic research. Would that most ethnographers were able to do field research this well and make it as engaging and powerful."--Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University

"This engaging book makes a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of the character and future of American democracy. It introduces readers to a long-standing and effective community organizing movement, and offers a hopeful but realistic assessment of what could happen if this model were implemented more widely and consistently. Stout offers a brilliant explanation of the political choices that now lie before us as a nation and as an emerging global society."--Robin W. Lovin, Southern Methodist University

"This original and important book develops an invigorating conception of democratic citizenship today. It is simply one of the most exciting books that I have read in ages."--Danielle S. Allen, Institute for Advanced Study

About the Author

Jeffrey Stout is professor of religion at Princeton University. His books include Ethics After Babel and Democracy and Tradition (both Princeton). He is past president of the American Academy of Religion and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 069113586X
• ISBN 13: 9780691135861
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368