Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship - by Michael H McCarthy (Hardcover)

About the Book

Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship carefully describes the crises confronting American democracy, identifying their philosophical, cultural, and institutional origins to show how liberal education, properly understood, can respond to these crises effectively.

Book Synopsis

In Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship, Michael H. McCarthy carefully describes the many crises confronting American democracy and identifies their philosophical, cultural, and institutional origins. He argues that a liberal education, properly understood, can address several of these crises effectively.

The book's successive chapters explore the sources, areas, and levels of division in contemporary America, and show how they have created important disagreements about the major challenges we presently face and the credible solutions they require. McCarthy articulates what a liberal education actually is and why it is vitally important for both our personal and civic lives. He also clarifies the critical contrast between effective freedom, the aim of a liberal education, and the concepts of freedom within economic and political liberalism.

McCarthy addresses the distinctive educational challenges presented by modernity and post-modernity: their moral aspirations, acute historical consciousness, and passion for radical criticism, as well as the traditional (Tocqueville) and contemporary (William Galston and Charles Taylor) discontents of American democracy. A central part of the book's unfolding argument is the enduring cultural contrast between the principles and aspirations of civic republicanism and the imperial assumptions of economics. This juxtaposition helps us to understand the power and limitations of the "stories we Americans live by" as well as the civic virtues we commonly need to create a free, just, and multi-racial America. These critical virtues, McCarthy argues, are the specific goal of a liberal and democratic education

Review Quotes

This is a very personal book exploring the author's long-term roles as a parent, teacher, and citizen through the lens of insights provided by great thinkers, past and present. Unapologetic reverence for both liberal philosophy and the role of the liberal arts college permeates the text. McCarthy argues that education provides the basic common understanding that binds a culture together, and that cohesion is under great stress in American society. While education has a definite end point, learning is a lifelong adventure. McCarthy makes no bones about taking on the dangers of Donald Trump and his supporters with sophisticated logic and examples. He contends that both freedom and democracy are under severe threat and that the solution lies in attitudinal change. Eschewing empirical evidence, McCarthy posits key assertions as accepted truths. While the ideas he presents are not entirely original, they are tied together in a meaningful dialogue, which forces the reader to face up to the thoughts of a wide range of thinkers. Regardless to whether readers agree with the McCarthy's obvious ideological preferences, they will be left wishing they could sit in on one of his seminars. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

About the Author

Michael H. McCarthy is professor emeritus of philosophy at Vassar College.