Democracy and the Foreigner

Author:   Bonnie Honig
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780691114767


Pages:   224
Publication Date:   02 February 2003
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Our Price $67.99 Quantity:  
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Democracy and the Foreigner


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Overview

"What should we do about foreigners? Should we try to make them more like us or keep them at bay to protect our democracy, our culture, our well-being? This dilemma underlies age-old debates about immigration, citizenship, and national identity that are strikingly relevant today. In Democracy and the Foreigner, Bonnie Honig reverses the question: What problems might foreigners solve for us? Hers is not a conventional approach. Instead of lauding the achievements of individual foreigners, she probes a much larger issue--the symbolic politics of foreignness. In doing so she shows not only how our debates over foreignness help shore up our national or democratic identities, but how anxieties endemic to liberal democracy themselves animate ambivalence toward foreignness. Central to Honig's arguments are stories featuring ""foreign-founders,"" in which the origins or revitalization of a people depend upon a foreigner's energy, virtue, insight, or law.From such popular movies as The Wizard of Oz, Shane, and Strictly Ballroom to the biblical stories of Moses and Ruth to the myth of an immigrant America, from Rousseau to Freud, foreignness is represented not just as a threat but as a supplement for communities periodically requiring renewal.Why? Why do people tell stories in which their societies are dependent on strangers? One of Honig's most surprising conclusions is that an appreciation of the role of foreigners in (re)founding peoples works neither solely as a cosmopolitan nor a nationalist resource. For example, in America, nationalists see one archetypal foreign-founder--the naturalized immigrant--as reconfirming the allure of deeply held American values, whereas to cosmopolitans this immigrant represents the deeply transnational character of American democracy. Scholars and students of political theory, and all those concerned with the dilemmas democracy faces in accommodating difference, will find this book rich with valuable and stimulating insights."

Full Product Details

Author:   Bonnie Honig
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9780691114767


ISBN 10:   0691114765
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   02 February 2003
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

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Reviews

Honig quite purposely twists the common question concerning whether immigration is good or bad... [She] provides a new take on foreignness and nation. Highly recommended. -- Choice


Honig quite purposely twists the common question concerning whether immigration is good or bad... [She] provides a new take on foreignness and nation. Highly recommended. Choice


Honig quite purposely twists the common question concerning whether immigration is good or bad... [She] provides a new take on foreignness and nation. Highly recommended. --Choice


Author Information

Bonnie Honig is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. She is author of Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics and editor of Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt.

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