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Podcast: New Books in Sociology
Episode: James Davison Hunter, "Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis" (Yale UP, 2024)
Description: Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictionsâmost notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the cultural resources of Americaâs âhybrid Enlightenment.âJames Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of âculture warsâ thirty years ago, tells us in Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis (Yale UP, 2024) that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved. Whi...