Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis

Ill Literacy: Books with Benson

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by James Davison Hunter, 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, to discuss his new book, Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis. They discuss how our historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved, why a deepening political polarization is the most obvious sign of this, how the true problem is not polarization per se but the absence of cultural resources to work through what divides us, and how all political regimes require some level of unity, and if it cannot be generated organically, it will be imposed by force. They also chat about whether this problem can be fixed and whether or not the Enlightenment-era institution that is liberal democracy survive in a post-Enlightenment world.

Get the book here:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274370/democracy-and-solidarity/

Show Notes:
City Journal: Fred Bauer – “A Renewed Union?”
https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-renewed-union

The Hedgehog Review: James Davison Hunter – “Dissent and Solidarity”
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/america-on-the-brink/articles/dissent-and-solidarity

National Catholic Reporter: Michael Sean Winters – “New book examines cultural roots of our political crisis” & “From 'culture wars' to 'cultural exhaustion': James Davison Hunter diagnoses our cultural ills”
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/new-book-examines-cultural-roots-our-political-crisis-0
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/culture-wars-cultural-exhaustion-james-davison-hunter-diagnoses-our-cultural

New York Times: David Brooks – “The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/opinion/trump-biden-authoritarianism.html