For the Sake of Argument: Practical Reasoning, Character, and the Ethics of Belief. By Eugene Garver. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. 264p. $55.00 cloth, $22.50 paper.

Does reason advance democratic values, or is it a manifestation of the will to power, used by elites to justify coercion? Eugene Garver seeks a middle way through this question by claiming that certain uses of reason oppress, but others do not. Practical reason can build democratic community, but only if it is carefully delineated from manipulative sophistry and an excessively theoretical reason that seeks logical rigor to the detriment of decent practices. Garver makes rhetoric a central case of practical reason to argue his point. This is understandable, given his previous work on Aristotelian rhetoric and the history of prudence.

Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy.

The Public Family: Exploring Its Role in Democratic Society. By David J. Herring. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003. 272p. $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

In the name of the family, the state has tried to encourage marriage for poor, single mothers yet denied marriage to homosexual couples. By terminating parental rights, the state denies certain adults the opportunity to raise their children, but the state has imposed parental obligations on others through measures such as child support enforcement. The state acknowledges the responsibility to educate all children but refuses to provide to all minors other important social goods, such as public assistance. Our policies toward families indicate any number of conundrums. In order to think more clearly about family law and policy, David Herring argues that we need to develop a deeper understanding of the public functions of the family, one with a healthy regard for the ways in which the family challenges and undermines the state.

Imagining the American Polity: Political Science and the Discourse of Democracy. By John G. Gunnell. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. 289p. $40.00.

John Gunnell laments the ignorance of our own past in political science and is determined to get us to understand the richness of earlier generations of political scientists and theorists who focused on the American incarnation of democracy. The key task of this book is to examine the discipline's understanding of democracy, with a focus on the conversations surrounding conceptions of the state, liberalism, and, especially, pluralism. On this, Gunnell offers a comprehensive and enlightening history of some of the central defining discourses of political science and political theory, interwoven with discussions of how this history relates to the development of political science as a discipline.

The Illusions of Egalitarianism. By John Kekes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 228p. $29.95.

According to John Kekes, contemporary Anglo-American political theory is dominated by egalitarian writers to the extent that all other voices are either drowned out or systematically excluded. Egalitarians “write books about each other's books, and mostly articles about each other's articles” (p. 188), and when confronted by those who disagree, they merely resort to “abuse” (p. 66). This egalitarian hegemony is both surprising and, where it does not render political theory irrelevant, politically dangerous because it is built on illusions rather than rational, defensible, arguments. The point of this book is to reveal those illusions and the absurdities that follow from them.

Freedom and Its Conditions: Discipline, Autonomy, and Resistance.

Critical Resistance: From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique. By David Couzens Hoy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. 288p. $35.00.

This book examines the value of different so-called poststructuralist philosophical approaches to normative justification and political resistance. The label “poststructuralist” is a contended one, and David Couzens Hoy provides a useful discussion of it. He includes discussions of Friedrich Nietzsche as the most important precursor to poststructuralism, of the poststructuralists Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Ernesto Laclau, and of Pierre Bourdieu, Emmanuel Levinas, and Slavoj Žižek, who, according to Hoy, are not poststructuralists. As such, the book discusses a variety of poststructuralist and related approaches and provides a good introduction to the potential problems with these approaches with regard to normative justification of resistance to domination.

Republicanism in the Modern World.

The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom. By Chandran Kukathas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 304p. $45.00.

For over a decade, Chandran Kukathas has been a distinctive voice in the debate in political theory over what liberalism mandates with respect to multiculturalism and the political accommodation of cultural diversity. Many contemporary liberals defend cultural rights for cultural minorities while insisting that their practices conform to fundamental liberal values or demands of citizenship. Kukathas denies any warrant for cultural rights but grants great authority to cultural communities to live as they please. His arguments in support of this conclusion have developed over the years. This book represents the culmination of his inquiries, where the relation of his earlier arguments—especially regarding freedom of association, toleration, and freedom of conscience—is explained and set out within a general “theory of diversity and freedom.” It is a fitting culminating work for this most independent of thinkers—beautifully written; skeptical, systematic, even tenacious in argumentation; rich in examples and insights; and liberally spiced with wit. The thesis, however, remains as provocative as ever.

The Micro-Politics of Capital: Marx and the Prehistory of the Present.

Faith in Nation: Exclusionary Origins of Nationalism. By Anthony W. Marx. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 288p. $26.00.

This is a bold and challenging study of European nationalism based on the following thesis: Nationalism was a phenomenon of state building that predated the eighteenth-century starting point favored by most scholars and whose genesis was elite pragmatism and popular mobilization. Moving the origins of nationalism back to the sixteenth (and even late fifteenth) century allows Anthony Marx to make two arguments, one explanatory and the other evaluative. Of the two, the former seems to be more persuasive.

Bound by Recognition. By Patchen Markell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 320p. $59.50 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Mainstream views of justice have typically concerned themselves with the distribution of goods such as money, power, opportunity, and liberty. In recent years, however, the traditionally neglected good of recognition has become a major focus of attention in contemporary politics and political theory. Stirred by a growing awareness of the pluralistic character of modern societies, many people now believe that recognition is something that is owed as a matter of justice. Just as poverty and a denial of liberty can have catastrophic implications for a person's well-being and self-development, misrecognition and nonrecognition can demean and insult an individual, leaving him or her with a crippling feeling of inferiority. In response to perceived failures of recognition, identity-related groups have called for significant changes in public policies and institutions: Political debates about everything from the college curriculum to laws regulating marriage, to language rights and race-conscious districting, to institutions of self-government for indigenous peoples and national minorities have been framed as “struggles for recognition.”

Citizenship and Education in Liberal–Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities. Edited by Kevin McDonough and Walter Feinberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 464p. $60.00.

What is the purpose of public education in liberal-democratic societies? Is it to promote a national identity, to champion certain values, or to encourage a respect for difference? Are such goals suitable to the increasing cultural diversification of nations and the ongoing globalization of the world? And how should liberals respond when parents demand that children be exempt from classes that conflict with their beliefs or fight for state-supported religious education on the basis of group rights? These are just some of the questions taken up in this rich collection of essays. Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies brings together prominent political philosophers and educational theorists to discuss some of the most contentious educational policy issues confronting liberal-democratic states today. With a philosophical rigor often missing from such debates, the authors in this collection provide insight into the complex legal and moral issues at stake, locate the debates in historical and philosophical context, and present ethical arguments and curricular recommendations that advance dialogue. Read together, these essays defend the liberal state against charges that public education undermines parental authority and threatens cultural integrity, and they make a strong case for state involvement in education.

Political Virtue and Shopping: Individuals, Consumerism and Collective Action. By Michele Micheletti. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 247p. $55.00.

Although this book is complex and multifaceted, there is one central argument running through it. This argument consists of the claim that consumption practices can be understood as political practices, and that such consumption practices are significant for societal development. For example, when a woman goes to the supermarket to buy shampoo, she can choose to buy the one with an environmentally friendly label, thus supporting policies of sustainability. The author sees the phenomenon of political consumerism as a reaction to the derooting of politics from the context of the nation-state into more microlocal as well as more global contexts, and she develops her own concept for defining political consumerism as political participation, namely, individualized collective action.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Friend of Virtue.