Civic Friendship: Ben Klutsey talks to Danielle Allen

Discourse Magazine Podcast

In the sixth installment of our series on liberalism, Benjamin Klutsey, the director of academic outreach at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, speaks with Danielle Allen about trust, civic friendship, political and social equality as an essential foundation for liberty, and the importance of overcoming our fear of talking (and really listening) to strangers.

Dr. Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, specializing in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, our discussion touches on her writings in The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004), Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), and Education and Equality (2016).

The audio, as well as the transcript of this conversation between Klutsey and Allen, has been slightly edited for clarity.

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Further Resources:

• Allen, Danielle. 2000. The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens.
• Allen, Danielle. 2004. Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education.
• Allen, Danielle. 2014. Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.
• Allen, Danielle. 2016. Education and Equality.
• Hayek, F.A. 1945. The Use of Knowledge in Society.
• Talisse, Robert. 2019. Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place.