Overview
- Fills a void in the scholarly discourse regarding the power struggle between the state and its citizens
- Presents a narration of citizenship in American society interwoven between theory and real-life examples
- Covers both contemporary demands (cosmopolitan identity and freedom from technological intrusion) and historical demands (individual freedom and group rights)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
— Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, USA
This thought-provoking book begins by looking at the incredible complexities of “American identity” and ends with the threats to civil liberties with the vast expansion of state power through technology. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of the promise and realities of citizenship in the modern global landscape.
— Kevin R. Johnson, Dean, UC Davis School of Law, USA
Momen focuses on the basic paradox that has long marked national identity: the divide between liberal egalitarian self-conception and persistent practices of exclusion and subordination. The result is a thought-provoking text that is sure to be of interest to scholars and students of the American experience.
— Aziz Rana, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, USA
This book is an exploration of American citizenship, emphasizing the paradoxes that are contained, normalized, and strengthened by the gaps existing between proposed policies and real-life practices in multiple arenas of a citizen’s life. The book considers the evolution of citizenship through the journey of the American nation and its identity, its complexities of racial exclusion, its transformations in response to domestic demands and geopolitical challenges, its changing values captured in immigration policies and practices, and finally its dynamics in terms of the shift in state power vis-à-vis citizens. While it aspires to analyze the meaning of citizenship in America from the multiple perspectives of history, politics, and policy, it pays special attention to the critical junctures where rhetoric and reality clash, allowing for the production of certain paradoxes that define citizenship rights and shape political discourse.
Reviews
“This remarkable book does the unusual: it embeds its focus in a larger complex operational space. The migrant, the refugee, the citizen, all emerge from that larger context. The focus is not the usual detailed examination of the subject herself, but that larger world of wars, grabs, contestations, and, importantly, the claimers and resisters.” (Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, USA and author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy)
“In five engaging chapters, this book thoroughly and insightfully identifies the conundrum of the citizen in an increasingly integrated global economy spanning nations with deep cleavages of race, class, religion, politics, and immigration status. Thought-provoking to say the least, the book begins by looking at the incredible complexities of “American identity” and ends with the threats to civil liberties with the vast expansion of state power through technology. The Paradox of Citizenship in American Politics: Ideals and Reality is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the promise and realities of citizenship in the modern global landscape.” (Kevin R. Johnson, Dean, UC Davis School of Law, USA and author of Immigration Law and the U.S.-Mexico Border)
“Mehnaaz Momen’s compelling new book is a sweeping account of the shifts and continuities in understandings of American citizenship from the colonial period to the present. In particular, Momen focuses on the basic paradox that has long marked national identity—the divide between liberal egalitarian self-conception and persistent practices of exclusion and subordination. What makes Momen’s account distinctive is that throughout the book she explores the way this paradox has served very particular political ends. Rather than simply an incoherence or a form of hypocrisy, she argues that this tension between ideal and reality has been a significant part of how American elites have justified both the expansion of national power and claims to imperial exceptionalism. The result is a thought-provoking text that is sure to be of interest to scholars and students of the American experience.” (Aziz Rana, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, USA and author of The Two Faces of American Freedom)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Paradox of Citizenship in American Politics
Book Subtitle: Ideals and Reality
Authors: Mehnaaz Momen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61530-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-61529-5Published: 07 September 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87103-5Published: 11 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-61530-1Published: 28 August 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 265
Topics: Citizenship, Sociology of Citizenship, US Politics