Before the Shooting Begins

Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture Wars

James Davison Hunter

What haunts us, rather, is not a legacy of past experience but an ideal: the ideal that a just and democratic order that we all aspire to requires that somehow we do it a little bit better.

James Davidson Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture Wars, 12

Part of what places these individuals in the ambivalent middle of this controversy is a capacity to feel for both the unborn child and the woman who wants an abortion. How they place themselves in the controversy in part depends on the object for which their empathy is greatest,

James Davidson Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture Wars, 130

The call, then, is for modesty about our political objectives. For one, this means a recognition that America will never be a city upon a hill, and if it is, it will be by necessity a city whose walls are crumbling and always in need of repair

James Davidson Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture Wars, 230

In Before the Shooting Begins, James Davison Hunter takes a deeper look into the anatomy of the crisis over abortion. He begins with an analysis of what the labels “pro-life” and pro-choice” mean. Through looks at various surveys and polls, as well as interviews, he reveals that there are many different layers of nuance that are lost by leaving the discussion at labels. He then looks at various institutions that play roles in the crisis, examining the way they hinder the development of a substantive democracy, one in which genuine conversation can be had and common solutions can be found, even despite varieties of principle and opinion. Then, he discusses the ways in which substantive democracy can be promoted—a task that he argues is difficult but not impossible. The book is an engaging look at various levels that surround the abortion controversy and the way they affect our culture and our discourse.

Find Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture Wars, at your local library or purchase here!

Lydia Saffian 2022