Civic Hope

Roderick P. Hart holds the Shivers Chair in Communication and is Professor of Government at the University of Texas, Austin. Former dean of the Moody College of Communication and founding director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, Hart is the author or editor of fifteen books, the most recent of which is Political Tone: What Leaders Say and Why (2013). Hart has been named a Fellow of the International Communication Association, a Distinguished Scholar by the National Communication Association, and received the Edelman Career Award from the American Political Science Association. He is also a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas, Austin.

• Part I. The Need for Civic Hope: 1. Can politics be fixed?; 2. Can citizenship be revived?; 3. Is civic hope the answer?; Part II. The Search for Civic Hope: 4. People who write letters; 5. People who read letters; Part III. The Texture of Civic Hope: 6. Why letters are compelling; 7. Why letters are irritating; 8. How letters have changed; 9. How letters differ; Part IV. The Future of Civic Hope: 10. Sustaining a culture of argument; Appendices; Index.

'Professor Hart is amongst the most well-known and highly-regarded students of political language. It should come as no surprise, then, that his recent book offers a careful analysis of political language, this time in letters to the editor. And his findings - focused on 'civic hope' even in a period of heightened political polarization - offer a unique perspective, not just on what we can learn from newspaper content, but on the centrality and importance of a 'culture of argument' in American democracy.' Stuart Soroka, University of Michigan