Overview

"Why have so many figures throughout American history proclaimed their life stories when confronted by great political problems? The Claims of Experience provides a new theory for what makes autobiography political throughout the history of the United States and today. Across five chapters, Nolan Bennett examines the democratic challenges that encouraged a diverse cast of figures to bear their stories: Benjamin Franklin amid the revolutionary era, Frederick Douglass in the antebellum and abolitionist movements, Henry Adams in the Gilded Age and its anxieties of industrial change, Emma Goldman among the first Red Scare and state opposition to radical speech, and Whittaker Chambers amid the second Red Scare that initiated the anticommunist turn of modern conservatism.These historical figures made what Bennett calls a ""claim of experience."" By proclaiming their life stories, these authors took back authority over their experiences from prevailing political powers, and called to new community among their audiences. Their claims sought to restore to readers the power to remake and make meaning of their own lives.Whereas political theorists and activists have often seen autobiography to be too individualist or a mere documentary source of evidence, this theory reveals the democratic power that life narratives have offered those on the margins and in the mainstream. If they are successful, claims of experience summon new popular authority to surpass what their authors see as the injustices of prevailing American institutions and identity. Bennett shows through historical study and theorization how this renewed appreciation for the politics of life writing elevates these authors' distinct democratic visions while drawing common themes across them. This book offers both a method for understanding the politics of life narrative and a call to anticipate claims of experience as they appear today."

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9780197588246

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Reviews

...There is no doubt that his is a fresh voice in the field of political theory....Recommended. * M.J. Birkner, Gettysburg College, CHOICE * The reflections that The Claims of Experience inspires are vital to pursue now, and they will be for as long as American democracy, in one form or another, endures. * Rogers Smith, Review of Politics * [A]n original, beautifully written, and sophisticated account of how autobiography represents a distinct genre of political theory that holds the power to recreate political community through personal life writing. * Adam Dahl, Political Theory * Autobiography is central to galvanizing democratic action, Nolan Bennett argues in this important and timely book. Life writing allows authors to seize the authority to make their lives politically meaningful, while encouraging readers to connect their own experiences to visions of equality and justice. Engaging some of the most interesting writers in American political history, this beautiful book reminds us of the power of personal storytelling for crafting vibrant democratic futures. * Elisabeth R. Anker, author of Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom * The Claims of Experience is a beautiful, innovative book. Through vivid studies of autobiographies by revered and reviled figures from US history, Nolan Bennett captures the relationship between life writing and democratic thinking. Bennett's book not only reveals the political value of autobiography, but it also pursues Richard Wright's dream of building 'a bridge of words' between the stories of five remarkable lives and the possibilities for freer and more humane forms of coexistence. * Lawrie Balfour, author of Democracy's Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W. E. B. Du Bois * Nolan Bennett's fine study adds a vitally important dimension to our understanding of autobiography and its uses. Heretofore, we have approached this genre mainly for insights into personal identity and for vivid testimony about trauma, illness, and disability. Bennett now shows that autobiographies are also compelling contributions to an expanded political theory of democracy, one that gives weight to experience not just ideas, and to citizens not just institutions. * Nick Bromell, author of The Time Is Always Now: Black Thought and the Transformation of US Democracy * Nolan Bennett's Claims of Experience is an ambitious and thought-provoking book that introduces creative new ways to think about the role of autobiography in democratic politics. Analyzing how a diverse selection of American thinkers have told their life stories, it offers strikingly original interpretations of their political thought, along with fresh insights into their personal and public lives. It is a book for anyone who cares about how Americans understand themselves and their politics, not only in the past but also today. * Michael Lienesch, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Nolan Bennett's The Claims of Experience is a remarkable book. Bennett recovers the role of personal narrative as a resource for political thought and democratic politics in a series of provocative and original readings of autobiographical texts. It offers keen insights in an engaging prose. This is an important and original contribution to political theory. * Simon Stow, The College of William and Mary * Autobiography creates community. This is the bold, paradoxical claim that Nolan Bennett explores in this magnificent history of life writing in U.S. political thought. Bennett sheds new light on classic autobiographers, Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass, while disclosing the intellectual riches of the relatively neglected Henry Adams, Emma Goldman, and Whittaker Chambers. This careful, thorough book will have a long shelf life as an alternative history of American political thought. * Jack Turner, author of Awakening to Race: Individualism and Social Consciousness in America * Bennett shows us that, throughout American history, Americans have found a creative way to challenge and expand the 'we' [of 'We the People']...they have done so through autobiography. -Susan McWilliams Barndt, Perspectives on Politics

Author Information

Nolan Bennett is an Assistant Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. He is a scholar of American political thought, and his research considers why and to what effect historical actors and movements ground their claims for democratic justice in personal experience. He recovers genres like autobiography, slave narrative, and prison writing as appeals to popular authority and representation not found in state or electoral politics. Nolan is particularly interested in issues of prison reform and punishment in the United States, inspired by the long history of prison writing, and with a committed interest to teaching in carceral spaces.

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