Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African WordPhilosophers 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. |
Other editions - View all
Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African Word Celeste Michelle Condit,John Louis Lucaites Limited preview - 2012 |
Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African Word Celeste Michelle Condit,John Louis Lucaites Limited preview - 1993 |
Crafting Equality: America's Anglo-African Word Celeste Michelle Condit,John Louis Lucaites Limited preview - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
2d sess abolitionists achieved African African-American African-American rhetors Afro-American Afrocentric American Revolution Anglo-American Aptheker arena argued argument black and white black leaders Black Nationalism black power Boston British Chicago civil rights claim colonists colonization Colored Citizen compromise Cong Congress Congressional Record Constitution Court debate doctrine dominant egalitarian emancipation employed Equal Liberty equal opportunity Equal Rights federal Frederick Douglass free blacks freedom freemen human Ibid identity ideology important individual issue Jackson Jesse Jackson John July leadership mainstream Malcolm Malcolm X Maryland Gazette mean ment natural rights newspapers Northern Oration period Political Equality President problem protection public discourse public vocabulary race racial racist Reconstruction represented republicans rhetoric rhetorical culture segregation separate but equal slavery slaves Social Equality Society South speech tion University Press usage of Equality values vision voices W. E. B. Du Bois white Southerners white supremacists word equality York
References to this book
Multicultural Public Relations: A Social-interpretive Approach Stephen P. Banks No preview available - 2000 |
Mobilizing Public Opinion: Black Insurgency and Racial Attitudes in the ... Taeku Lee Limited preview - 2002 |