Description:
Through a series of often overlooked historical events, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 BCE, the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. Integrating ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science, The Plebeian Experience describes the people's battles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles.
Brief description: Dick Howard (PhD, Philosophy, Texas) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at SUNY Stony Brook. He is the author of Between Politics and Antipolitics: Thinking About Politics After 9/11 (Palgrave, 2016), The Primacy of the Political: A History of Political Thought from the Greeks to the American and French Revolutions (Columbia, 2010), and The Specter of Democracy (Columbia, 2006), among other titles. He is also a columnist for Le Monde on the American political scene.
Review Quotes: The plebeian insurrection is nothing other than the people's assuming of responsibility, through political action, for their own humanity.--Stéphane Legrand, Le Monde