This is one of my least favorite Cornel West books. It is ostensibly a book about democracy, but it's actually mostly a rant about race (and separately, religion). It's unclear to me what he means by democracy (although I'm not a huge fan of what I understand to be democracy, myself; human rights are critical, but the system of representation for government is an instrumentality.)

His whole "argumentation style" is a mix of nice-sounding rant mixed with fairly out of context and over the top references. When he's talking about racial issues directly, he's more clear, but viewing every single aspect of the world through a racial lens seems insane (he's worse than the white supremacist/nazi/etc whackos in degree!)

The really horrible part is when he goes into economics; he's basically a Marxist. ( )

p. 15 Cornel West makes vitally important points on our need to empower and inspire a democratic way of thinking and behaving,

p. 16 Socratic? Tikkun Olam, Hope

p. 19 I must read Checkhov after I finish el Quixote

p. 22 Nice citation of Walt Whitman qnd Modern Jim Crow ... "the way we fight" ( )

I was not expecting too much from this book. I’d heard of West before but mostly from television interviews and not from any works he had produced. This book was probably overly ambitious but I was impressed by his desire to do some serious work in a very short book. That’s usually a recipe for failure to bite off more than you can chew but I admired what he was trying to do. He stated his aim and tried to accomplish it in the 218 pages that followed. He gives about 40 pages to describing and solving the Middle East issues. That’s pretty daring. This work is his own view on why democracy is our way of living in America. West’s theme is that Socratic questioning/confrontation, prophetic witness, and tragicomic hope are the best avenues to stop the USA being led toward Imperialism or nihilism. These are technical terms in the book and are used frequently within his political theory. I was pleased that he was doing a semi-classical political science treatise. This book is a follow-up to an earlier book “Race Matters” which I hadn’t read.
West posits that our nation has been founded on racist and imperial practices (as well as democratic). “Democracy Matters” is a [literary & philosophical] lens of race on America as West tries to “make the world safe for the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his secular democratic allies of all colors.” (p. 60) Many of Obama’s speechwriter’s ideas on the US military seem to come from West as all military actions have been attributed as attempts to further imperial expansion and therefore widening America’s economic empire. Obama has said the same thing on numerous occasions. Recently Obama has eliminated the imperial veneer from his comments on the actions of US military (Obama has seemed to realize that he is also the Commander in Chief).
The best part of the book by far occurs when West talks about hip hop music and how he was confronted by the new University President for being interested enough to engage students about it. Lawrence Summers, Harvard’s incoming President, is the comic relief as West presents it. I was laughing out loud while reading because West probably puts it down exactly as it happened. If you’ve been in academia for any amount of time, you’ll love his account. In fact, check out the book from the library and read that section just for laughs. Summers is a real douche. I mean, he’s the best douche you’ll find in a recent book about higher education. Politics and sports are their own domain, but Mr. Summers will make your day.
West has major philosophical flaws in several parts of the book. It was a good read, nonetheless. Index. ( )

There are two kinds of university professors: those who put one to sleep. And then there is Cornell West. If half the university professors in the US were as dynamic, energetic, and inspiring as West, three-fourths of the university population would come out of the university actually educated in terms of depth and substance, rather than merely with a "better" set of job skills which can be traded in the marketplace for a bigger paycheck. As West understands and makes clear, education is to make one a better person and citizen -- not simply to teach one how to make more money.

It is rare to find such a provocative and stimulating tour de force of reasoning just waiting to explode out from between the covers of a book. There is brilliant and obscure; and then there is Cornell West: brilliant, clear, and even musical in his prose. He sings democracy, and the reader finally "gets" the meaning of it.

Another said he doesn't offer anything "programatic" as solutions to our current circumstances. Yes, he does: he demonstrates to the reader what democracy is, and then you act in accordance with that. You are the "programatic" solution, because in a democracy one isn't only to be "free" and cavalier; one is also required to act in accordance with one's individual responsibilities as a citizen. Waiting for someone else to come up with a "program," someone else to do it, is why we are in our current circumstances. This is the Founders' view as they established it in law:
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Bill of Rights, Article I.

III. When men enter into a state of society, they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society, in order to ensure the protection of others . . . .

XII. Every member of the community has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty and property; he is therefore bound to contribute his share in the expence of such protection, and to yield his personal service when necessary, or an equivalent. . . .

New Hampshire constitution, in convention, at Concord, October 31, 1783, implemented June 2, 1784.

This was probably one of the toughest yet most rewarding books I've ever read. I feel like I've almost spoken with Socrates and listened to the notes coming live from Coltrane's sax- and even though this hyperbole is far from reality, I do feel like a better, more educated person for reading this book.
Socratic questioning, prophetic tradition, and the democratic experiment are now not only something I believe in but are something palpable and that I can base life experiences upon.
West writes with a fervor that I've experienced so few times prior. Like I mentioned previously, it's a tough read at times, but oh so necessary and rewarding. Dr. West covers a lot of ground, but it all comes full circle to tell a meaningful and important story/ lesson about the fundamental ideals that our society is (or should be) based on. ( )