Thomas L Dumm
Biographic Data
| ID | 274005 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas L Dumm |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas L |
| FAMILY NAME | Dumm |
| SIGNATURE | DUMM T L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Amherst College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 29 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Nobody’s Perfect
If an autobiography is to be even minimally readable, the autobiographer must step in and subdue what you could call memory's autism, its passion for the tedious.He must not be afraid to invent.Above all he must invent himself.Like Rousseau, who wrote (at the beginning of his novelistic Confessions
The Police Abolitionist Movement and the Neoliberal Paradox
Chapter 16 Conversion
Crediting God
Tocqueville suggested that "the people reign in the American political world like God over the universe.” This intuition anticipates the crisis in the secularization paradigm that has brought theology back as a fundamental part of sociological and political analysis. It has become more difficult to believe that humanity’s progress necessarily leads to atheism, or that it is possible to translate all that is good about religion into reasonable ter…
An End to Loneliness
I juxtapose two narratives concerning the politics of grief to reflect on loneliness in the US. I describe how Americans attempted to grieve the loss of the first 400,000 Americans to die from COVID-19. I then discuss how Donald Trump, often described as a sociopath, may better be understood as a person unaffected by modernity: one who reflects and amplifies a growing inability in American political culture to properly grieve without turning to g…
Introduction
On the Persistence of the Human
Recently, scholars have argued that to ask questions concerning what it may mean to be human is, paradoxically, to engage in an inquiry that is at best, meaningless and at worst, moraline, distracting thinkers from the pursuit of more consequential questions. I argue that the idea of the human remains central to any comprehension of sovereign power. To do so, I present a critical analysis of Erik Santner's work on what he calls "the flesh." Alter…
The political theory of Stanley Cavell
The Enemy He Wants
President Barack Obama seems to have abandoned his left base in order to rule in a bipartisan manner. In this essay, I suggest that his strategy has not been to govern from the center, even if that is the result of his strategy. Instead, by focusing attention on his conflicts with the Right he has managed to make his left base acquiescent, while illuminating the intransigence of his right opposition. In short, he has chosen the enemy he wants
The New Pluralism
Introduction: Pluralism Old and New / Morton Schoolman and David Campbell 1 A Pluralist Mind: Agonistic Respect and the Problem of Violence Toward Difference / Morton Schoolman 17 Connolly's Voice / Thomas L. Dumm 62 The Time of Rights: Emergency Thoughts in an Emergency Setting / Bonnie Honig 85 Visualizing Post-National Democracy / Roland Bleiker 121 Uncertain Constellations: Dignity, Equality, Respect, and ... ? / Stephen K. White 143 Prohibit…
Barack Obama and the Souls of White Folk
Sometimes there are unscripted moments in American presidential races that condense important themes of the campaign. Since the advent of television, examples abound: the first Kennedy–Nixon debate...
George W. Bush and the F-Word
Research Article| January 01 2006 George W. Bush and the F-Word Thomas L. Dumm Thomas L. Dumm Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google South Atlantic Quarterly (2006) 105 (1): 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-105-1-153 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Thomas L. Dumm; George W. Bush and the F-Word. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 January 2006; 105 (1): 153–160. …
Wolf-man and the Fate of Democratic Culture
This essay is a series of connected reflections on the fate of the wolf-man, suggesting from a variety of perspectives that democracy, thought of as an aspiration, cannot exist without the presence of this wild thing that exists by definition as a liminal figure, between animal and human. Wolf-man is beyond law, urging law on, in its futility
Books in Review
Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom
What is freedom? In this study, Thomas Dumm challenges the conventions that have governed discussions and debates concerning modern freedom by bringing the work of Michel Foucault into dialogue with contemporary liberal thought. While Foucault has been widely understood to have characterized the modern era as being opposed to the realization of freedom, Dumm shows how this characterization conflates FoucaultOs genealogy of discipline with his ove…
Death, Modernity, and Enlightenment
Resignation
A Note from the Editors
A Note from the Editors Thomas Dumm and Anne Norton, Editors Readers will notice an important change in 1.4. An essay by Peter Euben, Remembering Paige Baty, I, has been revised. We have made this change after learning that the second part of Professor Euben’s essay includes without attribution a section of an essay by Professor Vivian Sobchack that she had sent to Euben to be read at a memorial service for Paige Baty last summer. Professor Sobch…
A Note from the Editors
A Note from the Editors Thomas Dumm, Anne Norton, and Editors As this issue of Theory & Event goes to virtual press, we announce with sorrow news of the sudden death of S. Paige Baty, a young political theorist. Baty, who taught at Williams College through 1996, was to take up an appointment at the University of Arizona for this coming academic year. She was the author of American Monroe: The Making of a Body Politic (California, 1995) and was wo…
Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom
Strangers and Liberals
CHARLES TAYLOR'S Multiculturalism and Politics of Recognition* is a meditation on the rise of the modern demand for recognition, which he suggests is at the root of contemporary calls for the protection and elevation of specific minority cultures in majority societies. He connects the rise of this demand to the collapse of social hierarchies and the persistence of the desire for honor that such hierarchies once fulfilled. In a democratic era, we …
Books in Review
A Disease, A Symptom, A Disease
Democracy and Punishment
Journal Article Democracy and Punishment: Disciplinary Origins of the United States. By Thomas L. Dumm. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. X + 195 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $15.75.) Get access Paul W. Keve Paul W. Keve Virginia Commonwealth University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 1, June 1989, Page 236, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908381 Published: …
Response to Michael Rogin
Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom
Democracy and Punishment
Journal Article Democracy and Punishment: Disciplinary Origins of the United States. By Thomas L. Dumm. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. X + 195 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $15.75.) Get access Paul W. Keve Paul W. Keve Virginia Commonwealth University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 1, June 1989, Page 236, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908381 Published: …
Strangers and Liberals
CHARLES TAYLOR'S Multiculturalism and Politics of Recognition* is a meditation on the rise of the modern demand for recognition, which he suggests is at the root of contemporary calls for the protection and elevation of specific minority cultures in majority societies. He connects the rise of this demand to the collapse of social hierarchies and the persistence of the desire for honor that such hierarchies once fulfilled. In a democratic era, we …
II. The Politics of Post-Modern Aesthetics
Resignation
Barack Obama and the Souls of White Folk
Sometimes there are unscripted moments in American presidential races that condense important themes of the campaign. Since the advent of television, examples abound: the first Kennedy–Nixon debate...
Wolf-man and the Fate of Democratic Culture
This essay is a series of connected reflections on the fate of the wolf-man, suggesting from a variety of perspectives that democracy, thought of as an aspiration, cannot exist without the presence of this wild thing that exists by definition as a liminal figure, between animal and human. Wolf-man is beyond law, urging law on, in its futility
The Police Abolitionist Movement and the Neoliberal Paradox
The political theory of Stanley Cavell
The Enemy He Wants
President Barack Obama seems to have abandoned his left base in order to rule in a bipartisan manner. In this essay, I suggest that his strategy has not been to govern from the center, even if that is the result of his strategy. Instead, by focusing attention on his conflicts with the Right he has managed to make his left base acquiescent, while illuminating the intransigence of his right opposition. In short, he has chosen the enemy he wants
George W. Bush and the F-Word
Research Article| January 01 2006 George W. Bush and the F-Word Thomas L. Dumm Thomas L. Dumm Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google South Atlantic Quarterly (2006) 105 (1): 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-105-1-153 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Thomas L. Dumm; George W. Bush and the F-Word. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 January 2006; 105 (1): 153–160. …
Books in Review
Habermas and Modernity
Friendly Persuasion
N THE UNITED STATES the term liberalism is such a universal label that it has long been exhausted of whatever value it may once have had as an explanation of the particulars of politics and society. Paradoxically, however, the concept must constantly be rescrutinized, for the very banality of the word betrays its importance as a term of discourse, as a touchstone referred to by all who have participated or who wish to participate in American poli…
Friendly Persuasion
N THE UNITED STATES the term liberalism is such a universal label that it has long been exhausted of whatever value it may once have had as an explanation of the particulars of politics and society. Paradoxically, however, the concept must constantly be rescrutinized, for the very banality of the word betrays its importance as a term of discourse, as a touchstone referred to by all who have participated or who wish to participate in American poli…
Habermas and Modernity
If I had a Hammer
II. The Politics of Post-Modern Aesthetics
Democracy and Punishment
Journal Article Democracy and Punishment: Disciplinary Origins of the United States. By Thomas L. Dumm. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. X + 195 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $15.75.) Get access Paul W. Keve Paul W. Keve Virginia Commonwealth University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 1, June 1989, Page 236, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908381 Published: …
Response to Michael Rogin
Books in Review
A Disease, A Symptom, A Disease
Strangers and Liberals
CHARLES TAYLOR'S Multiculturalism and Politics of Recognition* is a meditation on the rise of the modern demand for recognition, which he suggests is at the root of contemporary calls for the protection and elevation of specific minority cultures in majority societies. He connects the rise of this demand to the collapse of social hierarchies and the persistence of the desire for honor that such hierarchies once fulfilled. In a democratic era, we …
A Note from the Editors
A Note from the Editors Thomas Dumm and Anne Norton, Editors Readers will notice an important change in 1.4. An essay by Peter Euben, Remembering Paige Baty, I, has been revised. We have made this change after learning that the second part of Professor Euben’s essay includes without attribution a section of an essay by Professor Vivian Sobchack that she had sent to Euben to be read at a memorial service for Paige Baty last summer. Professor Sobch…
A Note from the Editors
A Note from the Editors Thomas Dumm, Anne Norton, and Editors As this issue of Theory & Event goes to virtual press, we announce with sorrow news of the sudden death of S. Paige Baty, a young political theorist. Baty, who taught at Williams College through 1996, was to take up an appointment at the University of Arizona for this coming academic year. She was the author of American Monroe: The Making of a Body Politic (California, 1995) and was wo…
Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom
Resignation
Death, Modernity, and Enlightenment
Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom
What is freedom? In this study, Thomas Dumm challenges the conventions that have governed discussions and debates concerning modern freedom by bringing the work of Michel Foucault into dialogue with contemporary liberal thought. While Foucault has been widely understood to have characterized the modern era as being opposed to the realization of freedom, Dumm shows how this characterization conflates FoucaultOs genealogy of discipline with his ove…
Books in Review
Wolf-man and the Fate of Democratic Culture
This essay is a series of connected reflections on the fate of the wolf-man, suggesting from a variety of perspectives that democracy, thought of as an aspiration, cannot exist without the presence of this wild thing that exists by definition as a liminal figure, between animal and human. Wolf-man is beyond law, urging law on, in its futility
George W. Bush and the F-Word
Research Article| January 01 2006 George W. Bush and the F-Word Thomas L. Dumm Thomas L. Dumm Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google South Atlantic Quarterly (2006) 105 (1): 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-105-1-153 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Thomas L. Dumm; George W. Bush and the F-Word. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 January 2006; 105 (1): 153–160. …
The New Pluralism
Introduction: Pluralism Old and New / Morton Schoolman and David Campbell 1 A Pluralist Mind: Agonistic Respect and the Problem of Violence Toward Difference / Morton Schoolman 17 Connolly's Voice / Thomas L. Dumm 62 The Time of Rights: Emergency Thoughts in an Emergency Setting / Bonnie Honig 85 Visualizing Post-National Democracy / Roland Bleiker 121 Uncertain Constellations: Dignity, Equality, Respect, and ... ? / Stephen K. White 143 Prohibit…
Barack Obama and the Souls of White Folk
Sometimes there are unscripted moments in American presidential races that condense important themes of the campaign. Since the advent of television, examples abound: the first Kennedy–Nixon debate...
The Enemy He Wants
President Barack Obama seems to have abandoned his left base in order to rule in a bipartisan manner. In this essay, I suggest that his strategy has not been to govern from the center, even if that is the result of his strategy. Instead, by focusing attention on his conflicts with the Right he has managed to make his left base acquiescent, while illuminating the intransigence of his right opposition. In short, he has chosen the enemy he wants
The political theory of Stanley Cavell
On the Persistence of the Human
Recently, scholars have argued that to ask questions concerning what it may mean to be human is, paradoxically, to engage in an inquiry that is at best, meaningless and at worst, moraline, distracting thinkers from the pursuit of more consequential questions. I argue that the idea of the human remains central to any comprehension of sovereign power. To do so, I present a critical analysis of Erik Santner's work on what he calls "the flesh." Alter…
Introduction
An End to Loneliness
I juxtapose two narratives concerning the politics of grief to reflect on loneliness in the US. I describe how Americans attempted to grieve the loss of the first 400,000 Americans to die from COVID-19. I then discuss how Donald Trump, often described as a sociopath, may better be understood as a person unaffected by modernity: one who reflects and amplifies a growing inability in American political culture to properly grieve without turning to g…
Political science (23 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Law (18 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Law (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Psychology (8 works)