Michael Walzer

A provocative discussion of recent wars and the issues that surround them, written by a preeminent political theoristMichael Walzer is one of the world’s most eminent philosophers on the subject of war and ethics. Now, for the first time since his classic Just and Unjust Wars was published almost three decades ago, this volume brings together his most provocative arguments about contemporary military conflicts and the ethical issues they raise.The essays in the book are divided into three sections. The first deals with issues such as humanitarian intervention, emergency ethics, and terrorism. The second consists of Walzer’s responses to particular wars, including the first Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And the third presents an essay in which Walzer imagines a future in which war might play a less significant part in our lives. In his introduction, Walzer reveals how his thinking has changed over time.Written during a period of intense debate over the proper use of armed force, this book gets to the heart of difficult problems and argues persuasively for a moral perspective on war.

The Company of Critics provides a fascinating survey of the terrain of social criticism in the last century. Organizing the book as a series of eleven intellectual biographies, Michael Walzer tells not just the dramatic story of the cultural and political radical but also the more personal story of the meaning of criticism to the critic. By looking at the life and work of Julien Benda, Randolph Bourne, Martin Buber, Antonio Gramsci, Ignazio Silone, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, and Breyten Breytenbach, Walzer explains the role of the public intellectual in the context of what he identifies as "the triumphs and catastrophes of our time: the two world wars, the struggles of the working class, national liberation, feminism, totalitarian politics."The new edition, featuring a new preface, contains Walzer's thoughts on his own role as a public intellectual and, most important, the challenges that lie ahead for the engaged social critic. With its unique emphasis on life as a proving ground for thought, The Company of Critics is a necessary addition to the literature of social and political engagement both within and outside of the academy.

From the Athenian attack on Melos to the My Lai Massacre, from the wars in the Balkans through the first war in Iraq, Michael Walzer examines the moral issues surrounding military theory, war crimes, and the spoils of war. He studies a variety of conflicts over the course of history, as well as the testimony of those who have been most directly involved--participants, decision makers, and victims. In his introduction to this new edition, Walzer specifically addresses the moral issues surrounding the war in and occupation of Iraq, reminding us once again that "the argument about war and justice is still a political and moral necessity."

The distinguished political philosopher and author of the widely acclaimed Just and Unjust Wars analyzes how society distributes not just wealth and power but other social “goods” like honor, education, work, free time—even love.

Noted political philosopher Michael Walzer offers a moving meditation on the political meanings of the biblical story of Exodus. "Walzer knows his Bible. He stands in the growing ranks of contemporary academicians who are discovering in biblical and rabbinic sources a literature rich with significance for modern man".--Chaim Potok, "Philadelphia Inquirer".

What kinds of political arrangements enable people from different national, racial, religious, or ethnic groups to live together in peace? In this book one of the most influential political theorists of our time discusses the politics of toleration. Michael Walzer examines five "regimes of toleration"―from multinational empires to immigrant societies―and describes the strengths and weaknesses of each regime, as well as the varying forms of toleration and exclusion each fosters. Walzer shows how power, class, and gender interact with religion, race, and ethnicity in the different regimes and discusses how toleration works―and how it should work―in multicultural societies like the United States.Walzer offers an eloquent defense of toleration, group differences, and pluralism, moving quickly from theory to practical issues, concrete examples, and hard questions. His concluding argument is focused on the contemporary United States and represents an effort to join and advance the debates about "culture war," the "politics of difference," and the "disuniting of America." Although he takes a grim view of contemporary politics, he is optimistic about the possibility of cultural pluralism and a common citizenship can go together, he suggests, in a strong and egalitarian democracy.

Something that has been needed for a leftist foreign policy with a clear moral basisForeign policy, for leftists, used to be relatively simple. They were for the breakdown of capitalism and its replacement with a centrally planned economy. They were for the workers against the moneyed interests and for colonized peoples against imperial (Western) powers. But these easy substitutes for thought are becoming increasingly difficult. Neo-liberal capitalism is triumphant, and the workers’ movement is in radical decline. National liberation movements have produced new oppressions. A reflexive anti-imperialist politics can turn leftists into apologists for morally abhorrent groups. In Michael Walzer’s view, the left can no longer (in fact, could never) take automatic positions but must proceed from clearly articulated moral principles. In this book, adapted from essays published in Dissent , Walzer asks how leftists should think about the international scene—about humanitarian intervention and world government, about global inequality and religious extremism—in light of a coherent set of underlying political values.

A thought-provoking reflection on why secular national liberation movements are so often challenged by militant religious revivalsMany of the successful campaigns for national liberation in the years following World War II were initially based on democratic and secular ideals. Once established, however, the newly independent nations had to deal with entirely unexpected religious fierceness. Michael Walzer, one of America’s foremost political thinkers, examines this perplexing trend by studying India, Israel, and Algeria, three nations whose founding principles and institutions have been sharply attacked by three completely different groups of religious revivalists: Hindu militants, ultra-Orthodox Jews and messianic Zionists, and Islamic radicals. In his provocative, well-reasoned discussion, Walzer asks, Why have these secular democratic movements been unable to reproduce their political culture beyond one or two generations? In a postscript, he compares the difficulties of contemporary secularism to the successful establishment of secular politics in the early American republic—thereby making an argument for American exceptionalism but gravely noting that we may be less exceptional today.

A testament to what it means to be liberal by one of the most prominent political philosophers of our era “Walzer is perhaps our foremost pilot on these rocky shoals. In his preface, he writes that this may be his last book. One hopes not.”—James Traub, New York Times There was a time when liberalism was an ism like any other, but that time, writes Michael Walzer, is gone. “Liberal” now conveys not a specific ideology but a moral stance, so the word is best conceived not as a noun but as an adjective—one is a “liberal democrat” or a “liberal nationalist.” Walzer itemizes the characteristics described by “liberal” in an inventory of his own deepest political and moral commitments—among other things, to the principle of equality, to the rule of law, and to a pluralism that is both political and cultural. Unabashedly asserting that liberalism comprises a universal set of values (“they must be universal,” he writes, “since they are under assault around the world”), Walzer reminds us in this inspiring book why those values are worth fighting for.

In Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad , Michael Walzer revises and extends the arguments in his influential Spheres of Justice , framing his ideas about justice, social criticism, and national identity in light of the new political world that has arisen in the past three decades. Walzer focuses on two different but interrelated kinds of moral argument: maximalist and minimalist, thick and thin, local and universal. This new edition has a new preface and afterword, written by the author, describing how the reasoning of the book connects with arguments he made in Just and Unjust Wars about the morality of warfare. Walzer's highly literate and fascinating blend of philosophy and historical analysis will appeal not only to those interested in the polemics surrounding Spheres of Justice and Just and Unjust Wars but also to intelligent readers who are more concerned with getting the arguments right.

One of our most distinguished political theorists deliberates on the politics of the Bible and arrives at unexpected conclusionsIn this eagerly awaited book, political theorist Michael Walzer reports his findings after decades of thinking about the politics of the Hebrew Bible. Attentive to nuance while engagingly straightforward, Walzer examines the laws, the histories, the prophecies, and the wisdom of the ancient biblical writers and discusses their views on such central political questions as justice, hierarchy, war, the authority of kings and priests, and the experience of exile. Because there are many biblical writers with differing views, pluralism is a central feature of biblical politics. Yet pluralism, Walzer observes, is never explicitly defended in the Bible; indeed, it couldn’t be defended since God’s word had to be as singular as God himself. Yet different political regimes are described in the biblical texts, and there are conflicting political arguments—and also a recurrent anti-political if you have faith in God, you have no need for strong institutions, prudent leaders, or reformist policies. At the same time, however, in the books of law and prophecy, the people of Israel are called upon to overcome oppression and “let justice well up like water, righteousness like an unfailing stream.”

英国是人类史上第一个具有现代性要素的国家，在其现代国家形成的过程中，为什么是加尔文宗的清教徒带头发动荣登推翻了传统的封建主义？清教徒是一些什么样的人？他们何以具有如此的能量？而在克伦威尔去世后英国又为什么迅速地终结了神权性质的共和国？为了解答上述问题，作者着重关注1530-1660年间清教徒的历史，指出在16世纪的西欧出现了政治史上惊人的创新，创新的源泉是加尔文的教义和他的政治实践。作者指出，加尔文的教义不是神学，也不是哲学，而是一种具有现代意义的意识形态；加尔文宗注重政治现实，主张政治服务神学，并强调组织的极端重要性，强调政治是每个信徒的职业，要求信徒圣洁和敬虔，要求信徒平等但要完全遵守戒律和服从组织安排，积极参与荣耀神的政治活动，乃至战争。而英国的清教徒多为激进的知识分子，他们具有极强的组织能力和坚定的信念，由此经过100余年的准备，在社会转型的关键时期完成了一次激进的革命，成为了后世激进主义者的先驱。

A preeminent political theorist argues—against prevailing liberal theory—for the role of passion in political lifeLiberalism is egalitarian in principle, but why doesn’t it do more to promote equality in practice? In this book, the distinguished political philosopher Michael Walzer offers a critique of liberal theory and demonstrates that crucial realities have been submerged in the evolution of contemporary liberal thought. In the standard versions of liberal theory, autonomous individuals deliberate about what ought to be done—but in the real world, citizens also organize, mobilize, bargain, and lobby. The real world is more contentious than deliberative. Ranging over hotly contested issues including multiculturalism, pluralism, difference, civil society, and racial and gender justice, Walzer suggests ways in which liberal theory might be revised to make it more hospitable to the claims of equality. Combining profound learning with practical wisdom, Michael Walzer offers a provocative reappraisal of the core tenets of liberal thought. Politics and Passion will be required reading for anyone interested in social justice—and the means by which we seek to achieve it.

Political theorist Michael Walzer's classic guide is a perfect introduction to social activism, including what-to-do advice for deciding which issues to take on, organizing, fundraising, and providing effective leadership Political Action is a how-to book for activists that was written at one of the darkest moments of the Nixon administration and remains no less timely and intelligent and useful today. Michael Walzer draws on his extensive engagement in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s to lay out the practical steps necessary to keep movement politics alive both in victory and in defeat. What do people need to do when out of outrage or fear of looming disaster they come together to demand change? Should they focus on one or several issues? Should they form coalitions? What can and can’t be accomplished through electoral politics? How can movements operate democratically? What is effective leadership? Walzer addresses such questions with clarity, concision, wisdom, and wit in a book that everywhere insists not only on the centrality of movement politics to the health of democratic societies but on the deep satisfaction that is to be found there. Political Action is both an indispensable resource for activists and a lasting and inspiring summons to arms.

What do social critics do? I How do they go about doing it? Where do their principles come from? How do critics establish their distance from the people and institutions they criticize?Michael Walzer addresses these problems in succinct and engaging fashion, providing a philosophical framework for understanding social criticism as a social practice. Walzer maintains that social criticism is an ordinary activity―less the offspring of scientific knowledge than the “educated cousin of common complaint”―and does not depend for its force or accuracy upon any sort of high theory. In his view, the social critic is not someone radically detached and disinterested, who looks at society as a total stranger and applies objective and universal principles. The true social critic must stand only a little to the side of his society―unlike Jean-Paul Sartre during the Algerian war, for example, who described himself as an enemy of his own people. And unlike Lenin, who judged Russian society against a standard worked out with reference to other places far away.The “connected” critic is the model Walzer offers, one whose distance is measured in inches but who is highly critical nevertheless. John Locke is one example of the connected critic who argued for religious toleration not as a universal right ordained by reason but as a practical consequence of Protestant theology. The biblical prophets, such as Amos, were also men of their own day, with a particular quarrel to conduct with their fellows; the universalism of that quarrel is our own extrapolation. Walzer explains where critical principles come from, how much distance is “critical distance,” and what the historical practice of criticism has actually been like in the work of social philosophers such as Marx, Gramsci, Koestler, Lenin, Habermas, and Rawls.Walzer posits a moral world already in existence, a historical product, that gives structure to our lives but whose ordinances are always uncertain and in need of scrutiny, argument, and commentary. The social critic need bring to his task only the ordinary tools of interpretation. Philosophers, political theorists, and all readers seriously interested in the possibility of a moral life will find sustenance and inspiration in this book.

A collection of the most important writings of Michael Walzer, one of the world’s most influential political thinkersMichael Walzer is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading political theorists. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he has wrestled with some of the most crucial political ideas and questions of the day, developing original conceptions of democracy, social justice, liberalism, civil society, nationalism, multiculturalism, and terrorism. Thinking Politically brings together some of Walzer’s most important work to provide a wide-ranging survey of his thinking and the vision that underlies his responses to contemporary political debates. The book also includes a previously unpublished essay on human rights. David Miller’s substantial introduction presents a detailed analysis of the development of Walzer’s ideas and connects them to wider currents of political thought. In addition, the book includes a recent interview with Walzer on a range of topical issues, and a detailed bibliography of his works.This collection will be welcomed by scholars in politics and philosophy, as well as anyone keen to engage in discussion on some of the key issues of our times.

In this collection of essays, Michael Walzer discusses how obligations are incurred, sustained, and (sometimes) abandoned by citizens of the modern state and members of political parties and movements as they respond to and participate in the most crucial and controversial aspects of citizenship: resistance, dissent, civil disobedience, war, and revolution. Walzer approaches these issues with insight and historical perspective, exhibiting an extraordinary understanding for rebels, radicals, and rational revolutionaries. The reader will not always agree with Walzer but he cannot help being stimulated, excited, challenged, and moved to thoughtful analysis.

"Condensed to bumper-sticker pith, "What It Means to Be an American" asks everyone to "Honk If You Hate Us-Against-Them Thinking". Offering a fine antidote to exclusionist tripe about 'Americanism, ' Walzer grabs Pat Buchanan by the hyphens and doesn't let go".--"The Philadelphia Inquirer". Lightning Print On Demand Title

The first volume in a new series that will define an entirely new field within Jewish Studies by identifying a Jewish political tradition. Michael Walzer is the very prominent editor of the series, providing introductions to the volume and project as well as to each chapter. It is based on documents covering a time span over 2000 years.

C’è stato un tempo in cui liberalismo era un“ismo” come qualunque altro, ma quel tempo, secondo Michael Walzer, si è concluso. Adesso “liberale” non descrive una specifica ideologia, bensì una posizione morale. Il termine perciò si comprende meglio come aggettivo anziché come si può essere un “democraticoliberale”, un “nazionalista liberale”, un “intellettuale liberale”.Walzer elenca le caratteristiche definite da “liberale” in un inventario dei suoi più profondi impegni politici e tra gli altri, il principio di uguaglianza, il “rule of law” e un pluralismo tanto politico quanto culturale. Affermando che il liberalismo comprende una serie di valori universali (che devono essere tali, dice, perché sono sotto attacco in tutto il mondo), Walzer, in questo libro stimolante, ci ricorda perché vale la pena di combattere per quei valori.

A Prim i Argumentació moral adreçada a propis i a estranys, Michael Walzer destil·la tota una carrera dedicada a reflexionar entorn de les idees de justícia i de crítica social, aquest cop introduint una argumentació nova sobre les identitats nacionals, a la llum dels esdeveniments polítics contemporanis. Walzer hi estableix una distinció de gran subtilesa entre les argumentacions maximalistes o locals, i les minimalistes o universals, o, com ell en diu, les argumentacions amb gruix i les primes. Amb una prosa clara, precisa i accessible, Walzer capgira algunes de les posicions més comunes i acceptades de la política i la filosofia de la segona meitat del segle xx. Amb un punt d’ironia, hi ofereix una mirada nova, de gran lucidesa, que posa en valor com el gruix de les nostres cultures ens porta a articular la nostra idea de la justícia. Després dels seus clàssics, Spheres of Justice i Just and Unjust Wars, Prim i gruixut va irrompre en el debat sobre la identitat i la justí hi presenta una argumentació que ha esdevingut impossible d’ignorar per tothom qui vulgui participar del debat sobre les nacions i les llibertats.

In essays spanning more than fifteen years, Walzer debunks the pieties of both the neoconservatives and the New Left, arguing for equality, and for the radical transformation of capitalist society

Un guide pratique culte écrit par une des plus figures les plus importantes de la gauche américaine. Une ressource indispensable pour les militants, une source de réflexion politique pour tous, et un appel à l'action formidablement réjouissant.1971, en pleine guerre du Vietman. Michel Walzer a 36 ans ; il enseigne à Harvard et milite activement. Les États-Unis viennent d'envahir le Cambodge quand il écrit, en quelques semaines, ce qui deviendra ce Manuel d'action politique : un guide pratique et intellectuel pour toute personne désireuse de s'engager. Comment s'assurer que la cause défendue sera au bénéfice du plus grand nombre ? Quelle stratégie adopter pour obtenir gain de cause ? Comment s'assurer que ses objectifs ne pèchent pas par irréalisme ? Comment composer avec les désaccords internes ? Comment convaincre ses opposants ?2018, Trump est au pouvoir. Les étudiants américains veulent s'organiser. Leur prof leur photocopie son exemplaire de ce Manuel, indisponible depuis longtemps. " Pourquoi n'existe-t-il rien de ce genre dans les librairies ? " lui demandent-ils. Il y a là, affirment-ils, la réponse à toutes leurs questions. En 2019, la maison d'édition de la New York Review of Booksle réédite.Intentionnellement écrit sans référence au contexte de l'époque par celui qui deviendrait l'un des plus grands penseurs politiques de ces dernières années, ce manuel saisit par sa pertinence. Ce livre, sérieux et plein d'esprit, est une ressource indispensable pour les militants, une source de réflexion politique pour tous, et un appel à l'action formidablement réjouissant.

Der Kommunitarismus sei ein sinnvolles Korrektiv liberaler Politiktheorie, wenn auch kein substantielles politisches Programm – so argumentierte Michael Walzer in seinem vielbeachteten Aufsatz über »Die kommunitaristische Kritik am Liberalismus«. Seine ›Max Horkheimer Vorlesungen‹ sind eine Vertiefung dieser Kritik an liberalistischer Theorie und Praxis.Im ersten Kapitel korrigiert Michael Walzer das Bild vom autonomen Individuum, das einzig aufgrund seiner eigenen Wahl sich bestimmten Gemeinschaften oder Bewegungen anschließe. Das zweite Kapitel arbeitet heraus, daß rationale, wohlabgewogene Entscheidungen nur einen kleinen Teil des realen politischen Prozesses in Demokratien ausmachen. Soziale Konflikte verschiedener Größenordnungen sind ungleich bestimmendere Realitäten. Im dritten Teil schließlich behandelt Walzer die Rolle der Leidenschaften in der Politik, welche die liberalen Theoretiker gemeinhin herunterspielen, weil sie ins Bild vernünftiger Entscheidungsfindung nicht recht passen wollen. Diese drei Defizite sind in den Augen Walzers dafür verantwortlich, daß liberale Theorie in ihren zeitgenössischen Versionen die realen Situationen und Konfliktfälle ungerechtfertigter Ungleichheit eher ausblendet, als zu ihrer Beseitigung beiträgt.(Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine frühere Ausgabe.)