Cyrus Townsend Brady

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For Love of Country is a rare forum - an exciting conversation among some of our most prominent intellectuals about where our basic loyalties should lie. At the center of this lively, accessible book of debate is Martha Nussbaum's passionate argument for "cosmopolitanism." With our connections to the rest of the world growing stronger, she argues, we should distrust conventional patriotism as a parochial ideal, and instead see ourselves first of all as "citizens of the world.". Sixteen writers and thinkers respond to Nussbaum's piece in short, hard-hitting essays, acknowledging the power of her argument, but often defending patriotisms and other local commitments. We hear from an astonishing range of writers - philosophers and poets, literary scholars and historians. Nussbaum reaffirms the cosmopolitan ideal in a moving closing essay. This is a book for all citizens. Representing American philosophy at its most relevant and readable, For Love of Country will shape the way we think about some of our most urgent public issues and deepest human obligations.