The Plebeian Experience

A Discontinuous History of Political Freedom
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-231-15619-6
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 142 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 437 g

Reihe: Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History

How do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 BCE, the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. The people reject domination through political praxis and concerted action, therefore establishing an alternative form of power.

Breaugh's study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, his work undertakes exercises in political theory to show how concepts provide a different understanding of the meaning of historical events and our political present. The Plebeian Experience describes a recurring phenomenon that clarifies struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles from ancient Rome to Occupy Wall Street and beyond.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Breaugh, Martin

Weitere Mitwirkende

Lederhendler, Lazer

Howard, Dick

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Revolutionäre Gruppen und Bewegungen, Bewaffnete Konflikte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart I: What Is "the Plebs"?1. Historical Genesis of the Plebeian Principle2. Philosophical Genesis of the Plebeian PrinciplePart II: The Question of the Forms of Political OrganizationPrologue: On the Dominant Political Configuration of Modernity3. Sectional Societies and the Sans-Culottes of Paris4. The London Corresponding Society and the English Jacobins5. The Paris Commune of 1871 and the CommunardsPart III: The Nature of the Human BondPrologue: Social Bond, Political Bond, and Modernity6. The Sans-Culottes: A Political Bond of Fraternity7. The English Jacobins: A Political Bond of Plurality8. The Communards: A Political Bond of AssociationConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Martin Breaugh was educated at the University of Paris VII-Denis-Diderot and is associate professor of political theory at York University (Toronto). His research focuses on the theory and practice of emancipatory politics and radical democracy.

Lazer Lederhendler is a full-time freelance literary translator. His translations of contemporary Québécois fiction have earned various distinctions in Canada and abroad. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Dick Howard is distinguished professor of philosophy at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is the author of The Primacy of the Political: A History of Political Thought from the Greeks to the French and American Revolutions and The Specter of Democracy: What Marx and Marxists Haven't Understood and Why.