To Restore American Democracy: Political Education and the
Modern University. Edited by Robert E. Calvert. Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 288p. $75.00 cloth, $28.95
paper.
Power to the People: Teaching Political Philosophy in
Skeptical Times. By Avner de-Shalit. Lanham, MD:
Lexington Books, 2006. 224p. $85.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.
The authors of these two books are concerned with a similar question,
namely, how can scholars support their students in becoming engaged
citizens? Political theorists and philosophers often wrestle with
this question as a personal and professional quandary. Many
researchers, particularly those whose scholarship is concerned with
political questions, wonder to what extent their ideas relate to
political reality in a practical way. Can ideas influence, even
alter, the processes or norms of behavior in the actual political
domain? If what we do is political theory or
philosophy, what is political about it? Both books reviewed here
grapple with these questions in the context of teaching in higher
education institutions.