The Democratic Tradition We’ve Forgotten
The article discusses the importance of civic courage and collaboration in American democracy, as exemplified by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It highlights the need to recover the tradition of working together for the common good, which has often been overshadowed by a focus on individual rights. The author argues that understanding this collaborative spirit is essential for renewing democracy today.
- ▪William James urged Americans to recommit to the ethos of civic courage embodied by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
- ▪The article emphasizes the importance of collective deliberation and shared labor in American democracy, dating back to the New England town meetings.
- ▪The Civil Rights movement is presented as a prime example of citizens building power together across differences to create political possibilities.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
In 1897, the philosopher William James honored Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment—one of the first African American regiments to fight in the Civil War—by urging Americans to recommit to the ethos those soldiers embodied: “civic courage.”James wasn’t glorifying war. He was pointing to the peaceable, constructive politics Shaw and his men fought to preserve: a politics in which “the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties.” Such nations, James said, “have no need of wars to save them.”The heroism of Shaw, a white man, and his Black comrades lay not just in their martial valor but in…
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