The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life

by Michael Schudson

In 1996, less than half of all eligible voters bothered to vote. Fewer citizens each year follow government and public affairs regularly. Is popular sovereignty a failure? Not necessarily, argues Michael Schudson in this provocative history of citizenship in America. Schudson sees American politics as evolving from a "politics of assent" in colonial times and the eighteenth century, in which voting generally reaffirmed the social hierarchy of the community; to a "politics of affiliation" in the nineteenth century, in which party loyalty was paramount for the good citizen . Progressive reforms around the turn of the century reduced the power of parties and increased the role of education, making way for the "informed citizen," which remains the ideal in American civic life. Today a fourth model, "the rights-bearing citizen," supplements the "informed citizen" model and makes the courthouse as well as the voting booth a channel for citizenship.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Academic

402 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 1998

About the author

Michael Schudson grew up in Milwaukee, Wisc. He received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard. He taught at the University of Chicago from 1976 to 1980 and at the University of California, San Diego from 1980 to 2009. From 2005 on, he split his teaching between UCSD and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, becoming a full-time member of the Columbia faculty in 2009.

He is the author of seven books and co-editor of three others concerning the history and sociology of the American news media, advertising, popular culture, Watergate and cultural memory. He is the recipient of a number of honors; he has been a Guggenheim fellow, a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellow. In 2004, he received the Murray Edelman distinguished career award from the political communication section of the American Political Science Association and the International Communication Association.

Schudson's articles have appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, Wilson Quarterly, and The American Prospect, and he has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Financial Times, and The San Diego Union.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is excellent and I am looking forward to passing it around among people I know who are interested in participatory democracy or politics today. It is written in an engaging manner, easy to understand, yet really important and eloquent points are made. It is an impressively researched history covering a long time period, yet the style is so good that you get carried along from one interesting era or point to the next. Author Michael Schudson does an excellent job at including opposing viewpoints, and also remembering to contextualize the "American experience" when it wasn't the experience of anyone who wasn't a white male of property. I found so much in this that is relevant to current events and debates.

If you're at all curious about how we got to the "rights" movements of today, or if you've ever thought the Founding Father's generation had good ideas, or if you have opinions about how the political parties operate in today's United States, I recommend this book. I hope to assign his chapter on the Lincoln-Douglas debates the next time I teach that history. I found this book very interesting and learned from it, despite having a PhD in U.S. History. I docked one star because there were a very few moments in which I thought someone without extensive U.S. history background would not understand certain events/references that weren't explained or introduced to the reader. But mainly I think he did a great job making this accessible to anyone.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely essential history of the interface between US citizen & US government. We inherited a strong sense of class consciousness from the British & this was the predominant political motivator in the early days of the republic. Citizens paid no personal taxes, received very little in the way of public services, and citizenship was composed largely of voting which tended to be non-partisan & consisted of affirming support for the leading aristocrats. Later citizenship became absorbed in party membership & party membership subsumed all subsequent political decisions & was redeemed by a strong sense of belonging as well as spoils system benefits. Party control was weakened by the rise of civil service reform as party loyalty weakened as the primary activity of citizenship & expertise & the quest for knowledge rose in importance. Finally, the sense of rights as an important aspect of citizen-government interfact has arisen in the modern day.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is essentially a history of how people viewed and acted in politics and 'democracy' during different periods of America's history.

[Harrison Freuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The framers believed that the science of politics they worked on was a science of governmental systems and structures that would be, once constituted, a perfect mechanism for the deliberation of public issues. Much has been written about the character of the government they designed and their views on checks and balances, federalism, mixed government, and so forth. Less attention has been paid to what the framers expected to happen outside government in the public sphere, where citizens would gather and public opinion would be formed. What would take place outside the formal political system itself to support its work--indeed, to give it life?....The founders' vision of a civil society or public sphere was very limited. Not only were these leaders skeptical of democracy in the sense of opposing the enfranchisement of all but propertied white males; they also disapproved of general public discussion among the propertied white males. They were far from sharing a pluralist vision, still attached as they were to the notions of consensus, property, virtue and deference that came naturally to them" (54-55).

"It was not only ignorance that limited the people's capacity for governing but their inclination toward emotion...one of the difficulties of constitutional structure was to find a way to limit the influence of the rich, who are often able to manipulate the people. 'We should remember that the people never act from reason alone. The Rich will take advantage of their passions and make these the instruments for oppressing them'" (50).

"...human beings have limited attention spans; that on the rare occasions when they do turn their attention beyond their immediate, personal worlds, they are guided more by emotions, transitory circumstance, and mood than by reason; and that a vast new machinery of institutionalized persuasion was all too willing and able to exploit the situation for selfish ends" (212).

[Zach Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely captivating look at what being a "Good Citizen" in the United States has meant from post-Revoltuionary War era to 1990. Set aside what you think you know about the history of politics in this country, and be prepared to take a fascinating journey through the evolution of the American Citizen.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to understand the historical interaction within the U.S. between "the people," the government, and the Fourth Estate, this is a good read for you.

It is both motivational for anyone wanting learn more about the impact of good (and bad) journalism on civic life, and helpful to learn this modern media culture is actually an more the norm than anything else.