The crisis of American democracy is obvious to all. Ordinary Americans of all backgrounds and viewpoints believe that our politics—not only in its leaders and institutions, but in its ideas and ideals—is failing. This crisis is made more acute by the fact that Americans are unable to communicate across their differences and unable to work together to solve the problems they face. In Democracy and Solidarity, James Davison Hunter examines the cultural unraveling behind our political predicament. He explains how the values, symbols, and myths that once formed the basis of a broad national consensus became weakened. What happens when frameworks of meaning lose their authority? How deep are the cultural problems facing democracy? And how can they be fixed?

On Tuesday, April 1, at 6 PM join Professors Casey Blake and Richard John (Columbia) for this first meeting of a dinner series reading and discussing James Davison Hunter’s Demoracy and Solidarity. Reading: preface and chapter one.