Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
10-2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Political Science
Advisor
Uday S. Mehta
Subject Categories
African American Studies | American Studies | Political Science
Keywords
American Culture, American Politics, Literature, Political Theory, Race
Abstract
This dissertation examines how twentieth-century African American intellectuals engaged American political cultural beliefs central to American identity. A prominent argument of American political thinkers has been that the liberal-democratic ideals of freedom, equality, representative government, the rule of law, tolerance and civic obligation are what make Americans a unique people. From the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to the late twentieth-century such an argument provided American politicians, social movements and intellectuals a strong justification for divergent political claims, from Cold War warriors calling for the containment of Soviet Communism, to Civil Rights activists calling for racial integration to neoconservatives calling for the dismantlement of the social welfare state. This dissertation studies how one group of African American intellectuals writing in this period, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison, sought to provide counter-cultural narratives to dominant American understandings of freedom, democracy and generosity. I examine these revisions to shed light on each thinker's theoretical contributions, our understanding of the politics and art of African American intellectuals and the canon of political thought itself.
Recommended Citation
Zamalin, Alex, "Reconstructing the Nation: African American Political Thought and America's Struggle for Racial Justice" (2014). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/399