n Democracy Matters, Cornel West's follow-up to 1993's Race Matters, the author's diagnosis of the state of modern American democracy is grim. The institution suffers, he says, from what he calls free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating authoritarianism, forces that put a stranglehold on efforts to achieve better social and political results on a global scale. These systemic problems exist simultaneous to a pervading sense of nihilism throughout the American corridors of power, West contends, making lawmakers feel that they are inherently virtuous because they are so powerful and accepting a system they know to be unjust, while the press sacrifices truth and insight in pursuit of a sentimental story. Along the way, West makes extensive use of literary and historical parallels, employing Alexis de Tocqueville, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Toni Morrison and others, with grea! t efficacy for the most part, to illustrate his points. West's prescription calls for a path toward a style of Christianity more in keeping with what he sees as true Christian ideals as well as a greater enfranchisement and understanding of young people and youth culture. West has a lot to say and the vast scope of West's arguments could be construed in at least a couple of ways: either he boldly takes on the enormity inherent to the topic of democracy, or he loses his way and attempts to touch on too wide a swath of topics while rarely going into sufficient detail on any of them. Besides being a provocative author, West is a highly respected professor and Democracy Matters reads something like a university lecture sounds: often insightful, occasionally disjointed, periodically obtuse, and sometimes brilliant. But in the ongoing effort to establish a better democracy, Professor West's perspective is highly instructive. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly
A sequel to 1993's Race Matters, West's latest aims to "look unflinchingly at the waning of democratic energies and practices in our present age of American empire." Such orotund language pervades the book, which expands philosophically on extant critiques but offers little practical or programmatic advice. American democracy, argues West, is threatened by free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating authoritarianism. He criticizes Republicans as evangelical nihilists driven by delusions of American domination, Democrats (including John Kerry) as paternalistic nihilists accepting a corrupt system and most news organizations as sentimental nihilists sacrificing truth for distraction. With intermittent journeys through Tocqueville, Melville, King, Emerson, Twain and Morrison, among others, he lingers in the Middle East (supporting security for Israel and freedom for Palestinians), and calls fiercely for an American Christianity that evokes the Christian ideals of love and justice, and that advocates deeper engagement with youth culture—which leads to a nine-page account of how his outreach led to a clash with Harvard president Larry Summers and his departure for Princeton. Echoing his 1993 demand for improvisational "jazz freedom fighter[s]," West here invokes the blues, which "forge a mature hope that fortifies us on the slippery tightrope of Socratic questioning and prophetic witness in imperial America." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
This audiobook certainly lacks nothing in sincerity, personal style, commitment. However, its obfuscating prose makes Professor West's deeply felt points about America's past, current, and future political struggles much harder to understand than if he emulated one of his idols, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. West's pinched, raspy yet somehow jazzy delivery reminds one of a Spike Lee production--if it were one long close-up of Cornell West's face and discussed only intricate policy points welded to humanistic fervor. While this audiobook makes some excellent points, West would benefit from a good editor to help him deliver his points with more impact. We need a voice like his--if only it were more accessible. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
West, Princeton philosophy professor and renowned public intellectual, follows Race Matters (1993) by once again addressing important social and political issues, this time integrating concerns of all races regarding democratic ideals. His expressed purpose is to articulate a strong vision of American democracy by focusing on the "night side" of the American democratic experience. Racism and imperialism have been essential elements, central to our nation's development while restricting our highest ideals. West argues that a race-sensitive analysis, fully recognizing the contradictions of slavery and western expansion at the expense of indigenous Americans, can help us develop a progressive vision that will bring America closer to its ideals. Drawing on his theological background, West compares fundamentalist Islam, which has provoked a negative response in our nation, to our own Christian fundamentalism. He is most apprehensive of the unholy alliances between the corporate and political elite, which in recent years has been integrated with Christian fundamentalism. West maintains that fighting the corrupting forces of this alliance will require the moral renewal on the scale of the U.S. civil rights movement. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
In his major bestseller, Race Matters, philosopher Cornel West burst onto the national scene with his searing analysis of the scars of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, still in print after ten years, having sold more than four hundred thousand copies. A mesmerizing speaker with a host of fervidly devoted fans, West gives as many as one hundred public lectures a year and appears regularly on radio and television. Praised by The New York Times for his "ferocious moral vision" and hailed by Newsweek as "an elegant prophet with attitude," he bridges the gap between black and white opinion about the country's problems.

In Democracy Matters, West returns to the analysis of the arrested development of democracy-both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. In a strikingly original diagnosis, he argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Both our failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the crisis of Islamist anti-Americanism stem largely from hypocrisies in our dealings with the world. Racism and imperial expansionism have gone hand in hand in our country's inexorable drive toward hegemony, and our current militarism is only the latest expression of that drive. Even as we are shocked by Islamic fundamentalism, our own brand of fundamentalism, which West dubs Constantinian Christianity, has joined forces with imperialist corporate and political elites in an unholy alliance, and four decades after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insidious racism still inflicts debilitating psychic pain on so many of our citizens.

But there is a deep democratic tradition in America of impassioned commitment to the fight against imperialist corruptions-the last great expression of which was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King-and West brings forth the powerful voices of that great democratizing tradition in a brilliant and deeply moving call for the revival of our better democratic nature. His impassioned and provocative argument for the revitalization of America's democracy will reshape the terms of the raging national debate about America's role in today's troubled world.

About the Author
Cornel West is a University Professor of Religion at Princeton University. He is a recipient of the American Book Award and has received more than twenty honorary degrees. Race Matters has been in print since 1993 and has sold more than four hundred thousand copies. His other books include The American Evasion of Philosophy.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Cornel West's 1994 classic Race Matters scrutinized America's deep inner uncertainty about race. In Democracy Matters, his first major book in ten years, West analyzes the arrested development of democracy both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. He argues that if we are to become the steward of democratization around the world, we must first awaken to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own foreign relations. "The old American empire of Manifest Destiny and Cold War containment policies has given way," he writes, "to a new American empire of dreams of global domination."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Democracy Matters is Cornel West's critique of the troubling deterioration of democracy in America in this threatening post-9/11 age - and a call for the revitalization of the deep democratic tradition in our country, which has waged war on the forces of imperialist corruption throughout our history. Americans must take back our democracy, and in this call to arms, Cornel West shows the way." West, in this sequel to his classic Race Matters, returns to the analysis of what he calls the arrested development of democracy with a masterful diagnosis. He points to the rise of three antidemocratic dogmas that are rendering the energy of American democracy impotent: a callous free-market fundamentalism, an aggressive militarism, and an insidious authoritarianism.

FROM THE CRITICS

Lester K. Spence - The Washington Post

The new book is richer and more compelling largely because it contains a historical component that was mostly neglected in its predecessor. In his chapter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for example, West boils down several decades' worth of history on the movement for a Jewish state into just 30 pages. West has long been interested in Jewish culture (a chapter of Race Matters was devoted to the relationship between blacks and Jews, and he wrote a book with Tikkun magazine's Michael Lerner on the subject), so this is a natural extension. He does a yeoman's job of presenting the history clearly and succinctly for the layperson. And given the minefield this subject represents for scholars, he does an admirable job of critiquing both Israeli (and American Jewish) elites and their Palestinian counterparts, while arguing that the central problem remains the lack of a Palestinian state.

Publishers Weekly

A sequel to 1993's Race Matters, West's latest aims to "look unflinchingly at the waning of democratic energies and practices in our present age of American empire." Such orotund language pervades the book, which expands philosophically on extant critiques but offers little practical or programmatic advice. American democracy, argues West, is threatened by free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating authoritarianism. He criticizes Republicans as evangelical nihilists driven by delusions of American domination, Democrats (including John Kerry) as paternalistic nihilists accepting a corrupt system and most news organizations as sentimental nihilists sacrificing truth for distraction. With intermittent journeys through Tocqueville, Melville, King, Emerson, Twain and Morrison, among others, he lingers in the Middle East (supporting security for Israel and freedom for Palestinians), and calls fiercely for an American Christianity that evokes the Christian ideals of love and justice, and that advocates deeper engagement with youth culture-which leads to a nine-page account of how his outreach led to a clash with Harvard president Larry Summers and his departure for Princeton. Echoing his 1993 demand for improvisational "jazz freedom fighter[s]," West here invokes the blues, which "forge a mature hope that fortifies us on the slippery tightrope of Socratic questioning and prophetic witness in imperial America." Agent, Gloria Loomis for Watkins Loomis Agency. Author tour. (On sale Sept. 13) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In a timely and passionate follow-up to his best-selling Race Matters, West (Princeton Univ.) examines the democratic tradition in America and the Middle East and how it has been and continues to be compromised by racist and imperial impediments. West uses the work of writers, musicians, philosophers, statesmen, and activists to argue for a democracy that consists of a Socratic questioning, prophetic practice, and tragicomic hope emphasizing justice, love, and community rather than the nihilistic free-market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism, and escalating authoritarianism that he believes currently prevail. West's discussion of America's democratic tradition, as evidenced by the work of Melville and Emerson, the Jewish prophetic tradition, and models of Islamic-style democracies, is especially illuminating. He introduces readers to the religious, historical, and political ideas of great thinkers with alternative voices, absent of political motivations and self-interest. Youth culture, American Christianity, and his highly publicized resignation from Harvard are also analyzed. Recommended for both public and academic libraries. Sherri L. Barnes, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara Libs. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile

This audiobook certainly lacks nothing in sincerity, personal style, commitment. However, its obfuscating prose makes Professor West's deeply felt points about America's past, current, and future political struggles much harder to understand than if he emulated one of his idols, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. West's pinched, raspy yet somehow jazzy delivery reminds one of a Spike Lee production—if it were one long close-up of Cornell West's face and discussed only intricate policy points welded to humanistic fervor. While this audiobook makes some excellent points, West would benefit from a good editor to help him deliver his points with more impact. We need a voice like his—if only it were more accessible. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews