Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African Word (New Practices of Inquiry)

Condit, Celeste Michelle; Lucaites, John Louis

ISBN 10: 0226114651 / ISBN 13: 9780226114651

Published by University of Chicago Press, 1993

Seller Inventory # EBV.0226114651.A

Synopsis:

Philosophers and historians often treat fundamental concepts like equality as if they existed only as fixed ideas found solely in the canonical texts of civilization. In Crafting Equality, Celeste Michelle Condit and John Louis Lucaites argue that the meaning of at least one key word—equality—has been forged in the day-to-day pragmatics of public discourse.

Drawing upon little studied speeches, newspapers, magazines, and other public discourse, Condit and Lucaites survey the shifting meaning of equality from 1760 to the present as a process of interaction and negotiation among different social groups in American politics and culture. They make a powerful case for the critical role of black Americans in actively shaping what equality has come to mean in our political conversation by chronicling the development of an African-American rhetorical community. The story they tell supports a vision of equality that embraces both heterogeneity and homogeneity as necessary for maintaining the balance between liberty and property.

A compelling revision of an important aspect of America's history, Crafting Equality will interest anyone wanting to better understand the role public discourse plays in affecting the major social and political issues of our times. It will also interest readers concerned with the relationship between politics and culture in America's increasingly multi-cultural society.

About the Author: John Louis Lucaites is Provost Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in the English Department at Indiana University. He is coauthor of No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy and Crafting Equality: America s Anglo-African Word.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African ...
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: acceptable