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American Buddhist Rebel: The Story of Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz
by Liz LewinsonWinner of the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award, this acclaimed biography of the brilliant, controversial Buddhist teacher Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz (1950 - 1998) is this free-spirited adventure of a wild, sports jock teenager who transforms into an iconoclastic, innovative leader, boundary breaking is de rigueur as reported by the 100+ students and colleagues interviewed by author Liz Lewinson. Meditation, the empowerment of women and career as practice are but three of the core teachings covered in this book. Dr. Lenz ran into opposition, of course, but he kept his priorities straight. When he visited Nepal at age 19, he encountered an aged monk who informed him that he was a lineage bearer. He was to revive an ancient school of enlightenment. He was to find his many past life students and help them achieve joyous enlightenment in this life or at least set them securely on the path. He was to do this in the West, using Western means. In the East, centuries-old traditions maintain meditative pathways to enlightenment. In the West, facing a blank canvas, Dr. Lenz found new ways to build mental/meditative prowess through careers such as computer science, visits to American "places of power," knowledge about real gender equilibrium, movies, music, and dance. He taught these skills to American students and observed their success. When you read this fast-paced biography, you enter the inner teaching circle of baseline American Buddhism. "This fascinating biography captures the wisdom of a genuine, compelling teacher who combined absolute miracles with humor, fun, and adventure. When you read this fast-paced book, you feel you are there, learning and transforming. This is an original and exciting read." -- Lynn Andrews, author of The Medicine Woman Series
American by Paper: How Documents Matter in Immigrant Literacy
by Kate VieiraAmerican by Paper reveals how two groups of immigrants who share a primary language nevertheless have very different experiences of literacy in the United States. It describes the social realities facing documented and undocumented immigrants who use everyday acts of writing to negotiate papers—the visas, green cards, and passports that promise access to the American Dream. It is both an ethnography, filled with illuminating details about contemporary immigrant lives, and a critical intervention into two leading—and conflicting—scholarly ideas of literacy and its social role.Although popular thinking and scholarship have viewed literacy as a method of culturally assimilating immigrants into the nation, Kate Vieira finds that upward mobility and social inclusion in the United States are tied to literacy in complex ways. She draws from extensive interviews with Portuguese-speaking migrants who live and work together in a former mill town in Massachusetts that she calls South Mills: one group from the Azores, who are usually documented, and another from Brazil, who are usually undocumented. She explains how these migrants experience literacy not as a vehicle for assimilation (as educational policy makers often assert) nor as a means of resisting oppression (as literacy scholars often hope) but instead as tied up in papers, particularly in the papers that confer legal status. Papers and literacy are inextricably bound together, both promoting and constraining opportunities, and they shape why and how migrants read and write.Vieira builds on insights from literacy theories that have long been in opposition to each other in order to develop a new sociomaterial theory of literacy, one that takes into account its inseparable link to paper, forms, and documentation. This point of view leads to a deeper understanding of how literacy actually accrues meaning by circulating, and recirculating, through institutions and the lives of individuals.
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
by Colin WoodardThe author of American Nations examines the history of and solutions to the key American question: how best to reconcile individual liberty with the maintenance of a free society The struggle between individual rights and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of nearly every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agendas of the Federalists, the Progressives, the New Dealers, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party. In American Character, Colin Woodard traces these two key strands in American politics through the four centuries of the nation’s existence, from the first colonies through the Gilded Age, Great Depression and the present day, and he explores how different regions of the country have successfully or disastrously accommodated them. The independent streak found its most pernicious form in the antebellum South but was balanced in the Gilded Age by communitarian reform efforts; the New Deal was an example of a successful coalition between communitarian-minded Eastern elites and Southerners. Woodard argues that maintaining a liberal democracy, a society where mass human freedom is possible, requires finding a balance between protecting individual liberty and nurturing a free society. Going to either libertarian or collectivist extremes results in tyranny. But where does the “sweet spot” lie in the United States, a federation of disparate regional cultures that have always strongly disagreed on these issues? Woodard leads readers on a riveting and revealing journey through four centuries of struggle, experimentation, successes and failures to provide an answer. His historically informed and pragmatic suggestions on how to achieve this balance and break the nation’s political deadlock will be of interest to anyone who cares about the current American predicament—political, ideological, and sociological.From the Hardcover edition.
The American City in the Cinema
by James A. ClappThe American city and the American movie industry grew up together in the early decades of the twentieth century, making film an ideal medium through which to better understand urban life. Exploiting the increasing popularity of large metropolitan cities and urban lifestyle, movies chronicled the city and the stories it generated. In this volume, urbanist James A. Clapp explores the reciprocal relationship between the city and the cinema within the dimensions of time and space.A variety of themes and actualizations have been repeated throughout the history of the cinema, including the roles of immigrants, women, small towns, family farms, and suburbia; and urban childhoods, family values, violent crime, politics, and dystopic futures. Clapp examines the different ways in which the city has been characterized as well as how it has been portrayed as a character itself.Some of the films discussed include Metropolis, King Kong, West Side Story, It's a Wonderful Life, American Beauty, Rebel without a Cause, American Graffiti, Blade Runner, Gangs of New York, The Untouchables, LA Confidential, Sunrise, Crash, American History X, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Deer Hunter, and many more. This work will be enjoyed by urban specialists, moviegoers, and those interested in American, cultural, and film studies.
American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living
by Mark S. FerraraMainstream notions of the “American Dream” usually revolve around the ownership of private property, a house of one’s own. Yet for the past 400 years, a large number of Americans have dared to dream bigger and bolder, choosing to live in intentional communities that pooled resources, and they worked to ensure the well-being of all their members. American Community takes us inside forty of the most interesting intentional communities in the nation’s history, from the colonial era to the present day. You will learn about such little-known experiments in cooperative living as the Icarian communities, which took the utopian ideas expounded in a 1840 French novel and put them into practice, ultimately spreading to five states over fifty years. Plus, it covers more recent communities such as Arizona’s Arcosanti, designed by architect Paolo Soleri as a model for ecologically sustainable living. In this provocative and engaging book, Mark Ferrara guides readers through an array of intentional communities that boldly challenged capitalist economic arrangements in order to attain ideals of harmony, equality, and social justice. By shining a light on these forgotten histories, it shows that far from being foreign concepts, communitarianism and socialism have always been vital parts of the American experience.
American Constitutional Law: Volume 1, The Structure of Government
by G. Alan Tarr Ralph A. RossumAmerican Constitutional Law provides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, this text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Now fully updated, the eighth edition of this classic volume focuses on federal rights and powers and incorporates six new cases, including Boumediene v. Bush, Medellin v. Texas, Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land and Cattle Company.Also available in its eighth edition from authors Ralph A. Rossum and G. Alan Tarr: American Constitutional Law, Volume II: The Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments (Westview Press, ISBN 978-0-8133-4478-2).
American Constitutional Law: Volume 2, The Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments
by G. Alan Tarr Ralph A. RossumAmerican Constitutional Law provides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, this text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Now fully updated, the eighth edition of this classic volume focuses on individuals' rights and responsibilities and incorporates nine new cases, including District of Columbia v. Heller, In re Marriage Cases, Kennedy v. Louisiana, and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1.Also available in its eighth edition from authors Ralph A. Rossum and G. Alan Tarr: American Constitutional Law, Volume I: The Structure of Government (Westview Press, ISBN 978-0-8133-4477-5).
American Constitutional Law, Volume I
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrThe study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America. American Constitutional Law, Volume I provides a comprehensive account of the nation’s defining document, comparing how its provisions were originally understood by those who drafted and ratified it with contemporary constructions. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries to provide students with a sense of how the law has been interpreted over the years. Now fully updated, the ninth edition of this classic volume features several new cases including National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Arizona v. United States, and Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Company Visit westviewconlaw. com for instructor resources, including recently decided cases, material from prior editions, and a glossary.
American Constitutional Law, Volume I
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrAmerican Constitutional Law provides a comprehensive account of the nation’s defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, this text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Now fully updated, the eighth edition of this classic volume focuses on federal rights and powers and incorporates six new cases, including Boumediene v. Bush, Medellin v. Texas, Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land and Cattle Company. Also available in its eighth edition from authors Ralph A. Rossum and G. Alan Tarr: American Constitutional Law, Volume II: The Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments (Westview Press, ISBN 978-0-8133-4478-2).
American Constitutional Law, Volume I: The Structure of Government
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrA comprehensive core textbook and casebook that emphasizes precedent setting cases and alternative constitutional positions for courses in constitutional law and civil liberties.
American Constitutional Law, Volume II
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrThe study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America. American Constitutional Law, Volume II provides a comprehensive account of the nation’s defining document, comparing how its provisions were originally understood by those who drafted and ratified it with contemporary constructions. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries to provide students with a sense of how the law has been interpreted over the years. Now fully updated, the ninth edition of this classic volume features several new cases including Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Company, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Perry v. Brown, Snyder v. Phelps, and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. Visit westviewconlaw. com for instructor resources, including recently decided cases, material from prior editions, and a glossary.
American Constitutional Law, Volume II
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrAmerican Constitutional Law provides a comprehensive account of the nation’s defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, this text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Now fully updated, the eighth edition of this classic volume focuses on individuals’ rights and responsibilities and incorporates nine new cases, including District of Columbia v. Heller, In re Marriage Cases, Kennedy v. Louisiana, and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. Also available in its eighth edition from authors Ralph A. Rossum and G. Alan Tarr: American Constitutional Law, Volume I: The Structure of Government (Westview Press, ISBN 978-0-8133-4477-5).
American Constitutional Law, Volume II
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrEnhance your understanding of the nation ‚'s defining document with AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS, VOLUME II! With a focus on individuals ‚' rights and responsibilities, this political science text provides you with the information you need to understand the principles, prospects, and problems of America. Chapter and case introductions frame the development of the law and help you understand both the material and its context. Precedent-setting cases in areas such as privacy, criminal procedure, and abortion rights are included in the text and you can use the companion website to read additional cases of historical significance and current cases as they are decided.
American Constitutional Law, Volume II
by Ralph A. Rossum G. Alan TarrThe study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America. American Constitutional Law, Volume II, provides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document, comparing how its provisions were originally understood by those who drafted and ratified it with contemporary constructions. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries to provide students with a sense of how the law has been interpreted over the years. Now fully updated, the ninth edition of this classic volume features eleven new cases including Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Company, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Perry v. Brown, Snyder v. Phelps, and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. Visit www.westviewconlaw.com for additional resources, including recently decided cases, material from prior editions, and a glossary.
American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present
by Philip GorskiWas the United States founded as a Christian nation or a secular democracy? Neither, argues Philip Gorski in American Covenant. What the founders actually envisioned was a prophetic republic that would weave together the ethical vision of the Hebrew prophets and the Western political heritage of civic republicanism. In this ambitious book, Gorski shows why this civil religious tradition is now in peril—and with it the American experiment.Gorski traces the historical development of prophetic republicanism from the Puritan era to the present day. He provides close readings of thinkers such as John Winthrop, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Hannah Arendt, along with insightful portraits of recent and contemporary religious and political leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Gorski shows how the founders' original vision for America is threatened by an internecine struggle between two rival traditions, religious nationalism and radical secularism. Religious nationalism is a form of militaristic hyperpatriotism that imagines the United States as a divine instrument in the final showdown between good and evil. Radical secularists fervently deny the positive contributions of the Judeo-Christian tradition to the American project and seek to remove all traces of religious expression from the public square. Gorski offers an unsparing critique of both, demonstrating how half a century of culture war has drowned out the quieter voices of the vital center.American Covenant makes the compelling case that if we are to rebuild that vital center, we must recover the civil religious tradition on which the republic was founded.
American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present
by Philip GorskiThe long battle between exclusionary and inclusive versions of the American storyWas America founded as a Christian nation or a secular democracy? Neither, argues Philip Gorski in American Covenant. What the founders envisioned was a prophetic republic that would weave together the ethical vision of the Hebrew prophets and the Western political heritage of civic republicanism. In this eye-opening book, Gorski shows why this civil religious tradition is now in peril—and with it the American experiment.American Covenant traces the history of prophetic republicanism from the Puritan era to today, providing insightful portraits of figures ranging from John Winthrop and W.E.B. Du Bois to Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Featuring a new preface by the author, this incisive book demonstrates how half a century of culture war has drowned out the quieter voices of the vital center, and demonstrates that if we are to rebuild that center, we must recover the civil religious tradition on which the republic was founded.
The American Crisis
by Thomas PaineThomas Paine wrote the American Crisis in an effort to justify the American Revolution and to bolster the moral of the Continental Army. THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century
by Gary GerstleThis sweeping history of twentieth-century America follows the changing and often conflicting ideas about the fundamental nature of American society: Is the United States a social melting pot, as our civic creed warrants, or is full citizenship somehow reserved for those who are white and of the "right" ancestry? Gary Gerstle traces the forces of civic and racial nationalism, arguing that both profoundly shaped our society. After Theodore Roosevelt led his Rough Riders to victory during the Spanish American War, he boasted of the diversity of his men's origins- from the Kentucky backwoods to the Irish, Italian, and Jewish neighborhoods of northeastern cities. Roosevelt’s vision of a hybrid and superior “American race,” strengthened by war, would inspire the social, diplomatic, and economic policies of American liberals for decades. And yet, for all of its appeal to the civic principles of inclusion, this liberal legacy was grounded in “Anglo-Saxon” culture, making it difficult in particular for Jews and Italians and especially for Asians and African Americans to gain acceptance. Gerstle weaves a compelling story of events, institutions, and ideas that played on perceptions of ethnic/racial difference, from the world wars and the labor movement to the New Deal and Hollywood to the Cold War and the civil rights movement. We witness the remnants of racial thinking among such liberals as FDR and LBJ; we see how Italians and Jews from Frank Capra to the creators of Superman perpetuated the New Deal philosophy while suppressing their own ethnicity; we feel the frustrations of African-American servicemen denied the opportunity to fight for their country and the moral outrage of more recent black activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X. Gerstle argues that the civil rights movement and Vietnam broke the liberal nation apart, and his analysis of this upheaval leads him to assess Reagan’s and Clinton’s attempts to resurrect nationalism. Can the United States ever live up to its civic creed? For anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic, this book is must reading.Containing a new chapter that reconstructs and dissects the major struggles over race and nation in an era defined by the War on Terror and by the presidency of Barack Obama, American Crucible is a must-read for anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic.
American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism
by Keidrick RoyHow medieval-inspired racial feudalism reigned in early America and was challenged by Black liberal thinkersThough the United States has been heralded as a beacon of democracy, many nineteenth-century Americans viewed their nation through the prism of the Old World. What they saw was a racially stratified country that reflected not the ideals of a modern republic but rather the remnants of feudalism. American Dark Age reveals how defenders of racial hierarchy embraced America&’s resemblance to medieval Europe and tells the stories of the abolitionists who exposed it as a glaring blemish on the national conscience.Against those seeking to maintain what Frederick Douglass called an &“aristocracy of the skin,&” Keidrick Roy shows how a group of Black thinkers, including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Hosea Easton, and Harriet Jacobs, challenged the medievalism in their midst—and transformed the nation&’s founding liberal tradition. He demonstrates how they drew on spiritual insight, Enlightenment thought, and a homegrown political philosophy that gave expression to their experiences at the bottom of the American social order. Roy sheds new light on how Black abolitionist writers and activists worked to eradicate the pernicious ideology of racial feudalism from American liberalism and renew the country&’s commitment to values such as individual liberty, social progress, and egalitarianism.American Dark Age reveals how the antebellum Black liberal tradition holds vital lessons for us today as hate groups continue to align themselves with fantasies of a medieval past and openly call for a return of all-powerful monarchs, aristocrats, and nobles who rule by virtue of their race.
American Democracy
by Philip GreenThe book examines the problems that plague contemporary American democracy. Written from the standpoint of democratic theory, and from a progressive point of view, the book explores different facets of American democratic culture and its various deficits deficits that can lead to the crippling of democratic politics. "
American Democracy in Crisis: The Case for Rethinking Madisonian Government
by Jeanne SheehanPublic disenchantment with and distrust of American government is at an all-time high and who can blame them? In the face of widespread challenges—everything from record levels of personal and national debt and the sky high cost of education, to gun violence, racial discrimination, an immigration crisis, overpriced pharmaceuticals, and much more—the government seems paralyzed and unable to act, the most recent example being Covid-19. It’s the deadliest pandemic in over a century. In addition to an unimaginable sick and death toll, it has left more than thirty million Americans unemployed. Despite this, Washington let the first round of supplemental unemployment benefits run out and for more than a month were unable to agree on a bill to help those suffering. This book explains why we are in this situation, why the government is unable to respond to key challenges, and what we can do to right the ship. It requires that readers “upstream,” stop blaming the individuals in office and instead look at the root cause of the problem. The real culprit is the system; it was designed to protect liberty and structured accordingly. As a result, however, it has left us with a government that is not responsive, largely unaccountable, and often ineffective. This is not an accident; it is by design. Changing the way our government operates requires rethinking its primary goal(s) and then restructuring to meet them. To this end, this book offers specific reform proposals to restructure the government and in the process make it more accountable, effective, and responsive.
American Democracy in Crisis: The Case for Rethinking Madisonian Government Post January 6
by Jeanne SheehanThis book analyzes the roots of widespread disenchantment with American government. While blame often falls on the individuals in office, they are not operating in isolation. Rather they are working within a system designed by the Framers with one goal in mind, protectionism. Although the Framers got much right, their commitment to protection of liberty led them to design a system replete with divisions of power. Whatever its merits at the founding, the government today is frequently described as dysfunctional and far too often unresponsive to the majority, unaccountable, and unable to deliver for its people. For those disillusioned with the current state of government and committed to effectuating meaningful change, this book advocates in favor of a fundamental reassessment of the system's primary objectives, followed by deliberation as to how it should be restructured accordingly. It not only presents specific reform proposals, but it ends with a stark warning: until and unless we embrace reasoned structural reform, we cannot be surprised if at some point the people become so frustrated that they either disengage, fight back, or seek solace in autocratic alternatives. This new edition includes audiobook files created by a state of the art text-to-speech tool at the chapter level.
American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory
by Gary DorrienA sweeping, ambitious history of American democratic socialism from one of the world&’s leading intellectual historians and social ethicists &“Dorrien is supremely qualified for the task he has set himself in this very thoughtful, necessary, and timely book.&”—Maurice Isserman, author of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington Democratic socialism is ascending in the United States as a consequence of a widespread recognition that global capitalism works only for a minority and is harming the planet&’s ecology. This history of American democratic socialism from its beginning to the present day interprets the efforts of American socialists to address and transform multiple intersecting sites of injustice and harm. Comprehensive, deeply researched, and highly original, this book offers a luminous synthesis of secular and religious socialisms, detailing both their intellectual and their organizational histories.
American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity
by Ann GleigThe past couple of decades have witnessed Buddhist communities both continuing the modernization of Buddhism and questioning some of its limitations. In this fascinating portrait of a rapidly changing religious landscape, Ann Gleig illuminates the aspirations and struggles of younger North American Buddhists during a period she identifies as a distinct stage in the assimilation of Buddhism to the West. She observes both the emergence of new innovative forms of deinstitutionalized Buddhism that blur the boundaries between the religious and secular, and a revalorization of traditional elements of Buddhism such as ethics and community that were discarded in the modernization process. Based on extensive ethnographic and textual research, the book ranges from mindfulness debates in the Vipassana network to the sex scandals in American Zen, while exploring issues around racial diversity and social justice, the impact of new technologies, and generational differences between baby boomer, Gen X, and millennial teachers.
American Dialogue: The Founders and Us
by Joseph J. EllisThe award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today. <p><p> The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions--and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice--Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues.