Literature Blog Review #5

Citation: McWilliams, Wilson C. The Idea of Fraternity in America. Berkeley: U of California, 1973. Print.
Summary:  In this book, McWilliams argued that there was an "alternative tradition" to the dominant liberal tradition in America, which he variously traced through the thought of the Puritans, the Anti-federalists, and various major and minor literary figures such as Hawthorne, Melville, Twain and Ellison. He argued that this tradition drew philosophical inspiration from ancient Greek and Christian sources manifested in an emphasis upon community and fraternity, which was properly the means to achieving a form of civic liberty. He contrasted this tradition with the liberal tradition, which conversely held that individual liberty was thought to culminate in political fraternity (Wikipedia).
Author: Wilson C. McWilliams. Was a political scientist at Rutgers University
Key terms: "Liberation"--> The popular public yearning to express the individual. "Counter-culture"--> That which is in opposition to the dominant societal culture.
Quotes: All from 621 "But the yearning for liberation apart from it's obvious roots in liberal individualism, indicates that fraternity in counter culture is a bond of embattlement, of unity against oppression"
"Less hopeful, even, is the belief that the common lifestyle provides the basis for brotherhood"
"It is sad that men who feel a desperate need for communion have been so deeply effected by a society whose life and thought deny it, that they can conceive of community only as an image, an illusion no less ephemeral for being willed"
 Value: This is a politically scientific approach to fraternity as counter culture around the time of individualism and liberation. Shows how a sense of community was frowned upon and exactly when fraternities began to be viewed as counter culture.