Political Responsibilities of Everyday Bystanders

Stephen L. Esquith is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1Grounding Responsibility1.Teaching as a Political Vocation2.Citizenship3.Political ResponsibilityPart 2Recognizing Complicity4.Beyond Sympathy5.Bystander Allegories6.Bystander StoriesPart 3Making Acquaintances7.Culture of Simulation8.Critical Reenactment9.Democratic AcquaintanceshipConclusionBibliographyIndexCredits

“The Political Responsibilities of Everyday Bystanders is an imaginative, practical, well-argued, and wonderfully written work of moral philosophy, political theory, and democratic education, all at once. It somehow—to its great credit—exudes both calmness and urgency. Its moral and political judgments are balanced and moving, in places wise. It is eminently thoughtful, and it promises, in the hands of citizen teachers, to help inculcate or evince the political responsibilities that ‘everyday bystanders’ (including students and citizen teachers themselves) have in the face of political challenges and even ‘severe violence.’”—James Farr, Northwestern University