Democratic Transformations: Eight Conflicts in the Negotiation of American Identity PDF
Preview Democratic Transformations: Eight Conflicts in the Negotiation of American Identity
Democratic Transformations ii Democratic Transformations Eight Conficts in the Negotiation of American Identity Kerry T. Burch Continuum International Publishing Group A Bloomsbury imprint 50 Bedford Square 80 Maiden Lane London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Kerry T. Burch, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the permission of the publishers. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-1213-2 PB: 978-1-4411-7378-2 e-ISBN: 978-1-4411-5048-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. ralph waldo emerson, 1838. philosophy recovers itself when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers and becomes a method, cultivated by philosophers, for dealing with the problems of men. john dewey, 1917. everybody has the blues. everybody longs for meaning. everybody needs to love and be loved. everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. everybody longs for faith. In music, especially in the broad category called jazz, there is a stepping stone to all of these. marTIn luTher kIng, jr, 1964. The truth will set you free. But first it will piss you off. glorIa sTeInem, 1973. vi conTenTs Prologue x 1 The pursuit of happiness 1 Transforming american scripture into a site of democratic pedagogy 1 C itizens and idiots: an ancient greek and roman snapshot of human happiness 5 j efferson unplugged: moving beyond idiotic pursuits of happiness 6 hannah arendt and john dewey on jefferson’s legacy 9 T he pursuit of happiness and the renaissance of civic virtue 14 2 The tyranny of the majority 21 reflections on a democratic educational conundrum 21 Contextualizing the tyranny of the majority 24 The tyranny of the majority and the “inverted totalitarianism” of american democracy 27 Classroom manifestations of the tyranny of the majority 31 T he tyranny of the majority as a resource for cultivating democratic moral literacy 34 3 Four score and seven years ago 37 C ivic rebirth and the erotic character of the gettysburg address 39 viii conTenTs T he “apple of gold” and the “picture of silver”: what the textbooks don’t say 41 r eading lincoln as a symbol of american identity: Toward a new civic aesthetic 46 4 Forty acres and a mule 55 “ The Colloquy in savannah”: what a black public taught sherman and stanton about democratic citizenship, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness 57 F orty acres and a mule, white supremacy, and the politics of ignorance 62 r eflections on martin luther king’s 1968 “speech that never was”: how the reparative principle of justice at stake in forty acres and a mule was denied again 66 5 The moral equivalent of war 75 a tale of two heroisms: how william james turned Theodore roosevelt on his head 78 h ow jane roland martin turns william james on his head: reflections on the status of a jamesian category 81 C onstructing musical education as a moral equivalent of war: The need for a recovery of horace mann’s lost eighth report (1844) 85 6 The business of america is business 93 F raming the contradictions at the heart of the “roaring twenties” 93 C oolidge, advertising, and religion: Constructing the business mind in the 1920s 98 j ohn dewey’s construction of the democratic mind in the 1920s 102 T he task before us—treating corporate personhood as the new Plessy v. Ferguson 107 conTenTs ix 7 The military-industrial complex 115 p utting the “academic” back into the military-industrial- academic complex 118 T he difficulty of mapping the expanding boundaries of the military-industrial-academic-media-sports- entertainment-complex 123 r ereading the “Complex” psychologically: Toward a theory of america’s civic neurosis 126 8 The personal is political 137 B ridging the gap between feminist consciousness-raising groups and critical pedagogy 140 m aking the personal political: The education of desire and purpose in the formation of democratic selfhood 146 T eachers as lovers or managers? reflections on the impossibility of teacher neutrality 152 E pilogue: Educating the souls of democratic folk 161 w hat jazz music can teach us about the education of democratic souls 167 Acknowledgments 177 Further Reading 179 Index 189
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