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 Google's PageRank and Beyond by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Kierkegaard's Writings, XIX: Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Birds of Venezuela by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Walden by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7 by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book When Computers Were Human by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Running Randomized Evaluations by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Philology by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Of Empires and Citizens by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book The Silent Sex by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Because of Race by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book What Is Meaning? by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book A Reader's Guide to Wallace Stevens by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Cover of the book Agrarian Crossings 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