A Politics of the Ordinary

• Publisher:   NYU Press
• Number Of Pages:   240
• Publication Date:   1999-07-01
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0814718973
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780814718971

In A Politics of the Ordinary, Thomas Dumm dramatizes how everyday life in the United States intersects with and is influenced by the power of events, on the one hand, and forces of conformity and normalcy on the other. Combining poststructuralist analysis with a sympathetic reading of a strain of American thought that begins with Emerson and culminates in the work of Stanley Cavell, A Politics of the Ordinary investigates incidents from everyday life, political spectacles, and popular culture.

Whether juxtaposing reflections about boredom in rural New Mexico with Emerson's theory of constitutional amendment, Richard Nixon's letter of resignation with Thoreau's writings to overcome quiet desperation, or demonstrating how Disney's Toy Story allegorizes the downsizing of the American white-collar work force, Dumm's constant concern is to show how the ordinary is the primary source of the democratic political imagination.

I am reading this book for a political theory course. It's one of those cases where an academic author simply does not know how to write a book for people other than his highly-specialized theory colleagues. It's a pity, because I suspect that under all of this excessively precious verbiage there are actually some good ideas here.

Beautifully written. With an extraordinary delicacy, this provocative inquiry into the political nature of the ordinary underpinning political life expands our thinking about the potential for freedom and democracy in late modernity. It's a remedy to cynicism that may make our hearts sing.

This title is one of Dumm's best. A page-turner, at times lyrical and always very detailed and well-informed, this book should be on the reading list of anyone interested in today's political scene.

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