{"id":46097,"date":"2025-04-29T22:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=46097"},"modified":"2025-04-29T22:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:12:44","slug":"james-davison-hunter-democracy-and-solidarity-on-the-cultural-roots-of-americas-political-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=46097","title":{"rendered":"James Davison Hunter, \u201eDemocracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From \u201cthe nation\u2019s leading cultural historian\u201d (David Brooks, <\/strong>New York Times<\/strong><\/em>), the long-developing cultural divisions beneath our present political crisis<\/strong>
 
Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions\u2014most 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 America\u2019s \u201chybrid Enlightenment.\u201d
 
James Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of \u201cculture wars\u201d thirty years ago, tells us in this new book that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved. While a deepening political polarization is the most obvious sign of this, the true problem is not polarization per se but the absence of cultural resources to work through what divides us. The destructive logic that has filled the void only makes bridging our differences more challenging. In the end, all political regimes require some level of unity. If it cannot be generated organically, it will be imposed by force.
 
Can America\u2019s political crisis be fixed? Can an Enlightenment-era institution\u2014liberal democracy\u2014survive and thrive in a post-Enlightenment world? If, for some, salvaging the older sources of national solidarity is neither possible sociologically, nor desirable politically or ethically, what cultural resources will support liberal democracy in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

James Davison Hunter<\/strong> is LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His books include Culture Wars<\/em> and Science and the Good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\n
Home<\/a><\/blockquote>