American Dionysia

Steven Johnston is the Neal A. Maxwell Chair in Political Theory, Public Policy, and Public Service in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah. He is the author of The Truth about Patriotism (2007) and Encountering Tragedy: Rousseau and the Project of Democratic Order (1999). He has published articles in Theory and Event, Contemporary Political Theory, Strategies, Political Research Quarterly, and Polity. In 2013 he founded the Neal A. Maxwell Lecture Series in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics. He is a regular contributor to the academic theory and politics blog, The Contemporary Condition.

• Introduction: antinomies of democracy; 1. American dionysia; 2. Democracy at war with itself: citizens; 3. Democracy at war with itself: animals; 4. Forcing democracy to be free: Rousseau to Springsteen; 5. Two cheers for democratic violence; 6. New tragic democratic traditions; 7. Conclusion: democracy's tragic affirmations.

'What if violence is not just essential to democracy's founding but also constitutive of its practice? How, then, might violence be embraced - rather than disavowed - to sustain and reclaim the democratic? In a remarkable work of stunning insights and surprising juxtapositions, Steven Johnston pursues these questions with tenacity, wit, and eloquence. American Dionysia further establishes Johnston as one of the most innovative and original voices in contemporary political theory. This is an extraordinary book.' Simon Stow, College of William and Mary, Virginia