Tales of the State: Narrative in Contemporary U.S. Politics and Public Policy

by Sanford F. Schram Author of Praxis for the, Philip T. Neisser, Joel Best The University of Delaware, Barbara Cruikshank, Donald R. Culverson

Overview

The relationship between politics and storytelling is one with a well-established lineage, but public policy analysis has only recently begun to develop its own appreciation of the power of narrative to explain everything from political traditions to cyberspace. This unique collection of original essays helps further that project by surveying stories of and about all kinds of American politics—from welfare, race, and immigration; to workfare, jobs, and education; to gay rights, national security, and the American Dream in an age of economic globalization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847685035
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/14/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Sanford F. Schram is visiting professor in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. Philip T. Neisser is associate professor of politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Part I. Origin Stories Chapter 3 Winning the West, Unwelcoming the Immigrant: Alternative Stories of "America", Chapter 4 Constitutional Tales: Capitalist Origin Stories and U.S. Democracy Chapter 5 Pluralizing the American Dream Part 6 Part II. Institutions, Actors, and Narratives Chapter 7 The Storyteller-in-Chief: Why Presidents Like to Tell Tales Chapter 8 Self-Legitimating Narratives: The House Republicans and the Contract with America Chapter 9 Native Son: Stories of Self-Creation in the Judicial Politics of Clarence Thomas Part 10 Part III. Identity Stories in Public Policy Chapter 11 Talking Straight: Disidentification and Gay Rights Chapter 12 "It's Not Just Naked Women": Regulating Transgressive Identities in Cyberspace Chapter 13 Welfare Queens: Policing by the Numbers Chapter 14 Tales of Black Criminality: Racial Determinism and Fatal Narratives Part 15 Part IV. Tales of Domestic Policy Chapter 16 Welfare Migration as a Policy Rumor: A Statistical Accounting Chapter 17 Tales of the City: The Secret Life of Devolution Chapter 18 The Entrepreneurial Gloss: The Myth of Small Business Job Growth Chapter 19 The Vanishing White Man: Workforce 2000 and Tales of Demographic Transformation Chapter 20 Schooling Stories: Three Paths, Two Tragedies, and a Vision Part 21 Part V. Tales of Global Policy Chapter 22 Rumors of Apartheid: Myth and Stereotype in U.S. Foreign Policy Toward South Africa Chapter 23 National Security Tales and the End of the Cold War Chapter 24 NAFTA Discourse: Tales of Sovereignty, Science, and Adjustment, Chapter 25 Is It Global Economics or Neo-Laissez Faire?

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating, infuriating, eye-opening book. It succeeds in wedding high literary and anthropological theory with the mundane details of presidents' politicking and policy-makers' number crunching. Readers will swing between resistance to thinking of their own perspective as merely a narrative, and sudden awareness of how this framing really does illuminate some puzzling aspects of the American polity. They may not be fully convinced, but they will certainly be better off for wrestling with the issuesthat this book so cleverly raises...

Jennifer Hochschild

Tales of the State offers interesting examples of the role of the stories, or narratives, in politics and public policy. The collection overall makes important contributions to a more pluralistic approach to policy analysis. The book contributes to its goal, and it is one worthy of more attention from political scientists.

American Political Science Review

A fascinating, infuriating, eye-opening book. It succeeds in wedding high literary and anthropological theory with the mundane details of presidents' politicking and policy-makers' number crunching. Readers will swing between resistance to thinking of their own perspective as "merely" a narrative, and sudden awareness of how this framing really does illuminate some puzzling aspects of the American polity. They may not be fully convinced, but they will certainly be better off for wrestling with the issues that this book so cleverly raises.

Princeton University