A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson

by Alan M. Levine (Editor), Daniel S. Malachuk (Editor)

Overview

From before the Civil War until his death in 1882, Ralph Waldo Emerson was renowned -- and renounced -- as one of the United States' most prominent abolitionists and as a leading visionary of the nation's liberal democratic future. Following his death, however, both Emerson's political activism and his political thought faded from public memory, replaced by the myth of the genteel man of letters and the detached sage of individualism. In the 1990s, scholars rediscovered Emerson's antislavery writings and began reviving his legacy as a political activist. A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson is the first collection to evaluate Emerson's political thought in light of his recently rediscovered political activism. What were Emerson's politics? A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson authoritatively answers this question with seminal essays by some of the most prominent thinkers ever to write about Emerson -- Stanley Cavell, George Kateb, Judith N. Shklar, and Wilson Carey McWilliams -- as well as many of today's leading Emerson scholars. With an introduction that effectively destroys the "pernicious myth about Emerson's apolitical individualism" by editors Alan M. Levine and Daniel S. Malachuk, A Political Companion to Emerson reassesses Emerson's famous theory of self-reliance in light of his antislavery politics, demonstrates the importance of transcendentalism to his politics, and explores the enduring significance of his thought for liberal democracy. Including a substantial bibliography of work on Emerson's politics over the last century, A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson is an indispensable resource for students of Emerson, American literature, and American political thought, as well as for those who wrestle with the fundamental challenges of democracy and liberalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813140476
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	09/16/2011
Series:	Political Companions to Great American Authors Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	500
Sales rank:	874,001
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alan M. Levine, associate professor of political theory at American University, is the author of Sensual Philosophy: Toleration, Skepticism, and Montaigne's Politics of the Self. He lives in Washington, D.C. Daniel S. Malachuk, associate professor of English at Western Illinois University, is the author of Perfection, the State, and Victorian Liberalism. He lives in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Alan M. Levine, associate professor of political theory at American University, is the author of Sensual Philosophy: Toleration, Skepticism, and Montaigne’s Politics of the Self. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Abbreviations xi

Introduction: The New History of Emerson's Politics and His Philosophy of Self-Reliance Alan M. Levine Daniel S. Malachuk 1

Part I Classics on Emerson's Politics

1 Emerson: The All and the One Wilson Carey McWilliams 43

2 Emerson and the Inhibitions of Democracy Judith N. Shklar 53

3 Self-Reliance, Politics, and Society George Kateb 69

4 Aversive Thinking: Emersonian Representations in Heidegger and Nietzsche Stanley Cavell 91

Part II Emerson's Self-Reliance Properly Understood

5 Self-Reliance and Complicity: Emerson's Ethics of Citizenship Jack Turner 125

6 The Limits of Self-Reliance: Emerson, Slavery, and Abolition James H. Read 152

7 Emerson, Self-Reliance, and the Politics of Democracy Len Gougeon 185

Part III The Stubborn Reality of Emerson's Transcendentalism

8 Skeptical Triangle? A Comparison of the Political Thought of Emerson, Nietzsche, and Montaigne Alan M. Levine 223

9 Emerson's Politics, Retranseendentalized Daniel S. Malachuk 265

10 Emerson's Transcendental Gaze and the "Disagreeable Particulars" of Slavery: Vision and the Costs of Idealism Shannon L. Mariotti 305

Part IV Emerson and Liberal Democracy

11 Property in Being: Liberalism and the Language of Ownership in Emerson's Writing Neal Dolan 343

12 Standing for Others: Reform and Representation in Emerson's Political Thought Jason Frank 383

13 Emerson's Democratic Platonisin in Representative Men G. Borden Flanagan 415

Selected Bibliography 451

List of Contributors 463

Index 467

Editorial Reviews

An important and timely corrective to the political inheritance of Emerson's thinking—especially to the long-standing 'pernicious myth' of Emerson's apolitical individualism. This collection demonstrates how Emerson is, and always has been, essential to our understanding and theorizing of American politics.

David LaRocca

Makes a compelling case for reassessing Emerson's political thought.

Colloquy

A pathbreaking set of essays on the politics of Emerson.... Highly recommended.

Choice

This volume will quickly become indispensible for anyone writing about Emerson as a political thinker.

Alex Zakaras

"This volume will quickly become indispensible for anyone writing about Emerson as a political thinker." — Alex Zakaras, author of Mass Democracy: Mill, Emerson, and the Burdens of Citizenship

From the Publisher