{"product_id":"the-powers-of-dignity-the-black-political-philosophy-of-frederick-douglass-paperback","title":"The Powers of Dignity: The Black Political Philosophy of Frederick Douglass - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eNick Bromell\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Powers of Dignity\u003c\/i\u003e Nick Bromell unpacks Frederick Douglass's 1867 claim that he had \"elaborated a political philosophy\" from his own \"slave experience.\" Bromell shows that Douglass devised his philosophy because he found that antebellum Americans' liberal-republican understanding of democracy did not provide a sufficient principled basis on which to fight anti-Black racism. To remedy this deficiency, Douglass deployed insights from his distinctively Black experience and developed a \u003ci\u003eBlack\u003c\/i\u003e philosophy of democracy. He began by contesting the founders' racist assumptions about humanity and advancing instead a more robust theory of \"the human\" as a collection of human \"powers.\" He asserted further that the conscious exercise of those powers is what confirms human dignity and that human rights and democracy come into being as ways to affirm and protect that dignity. Thus, by emphasizing the powers and the dignity of all citizens, deriving democratic rights from these, and promoting a remarkably activist, power-oriented model of citizenship, Douglass's Black political philosophy aimed to rectify two major failings of US democracy in his time and ours: its complacence and its racism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eNick Bromell is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and editor of \u003ci\u003eA Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Time Is Always Now: Black Thought and the Transformation of US Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 19, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51790252507424,"sku":"9781478011262","price":45.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/2087a54617a27161e65e465f4ecd292d.webp?v=1780672871","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-powers-of-dignity-the-black-political-philosophy-of-frederick-douglass-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}