by Parker J. Palmer – Jossey-Bass
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This PAPERBACK EDITION includes TWO NEW FEATURES: (1) A chapter-length INTRODUCTION in which Palmer explores his political experience since the book first came out in 2011, including a new way to understand “the great divide” in our political life. (2) A detailed DISCUSSION GUIDE with links to online resources — including 40 brief video interviews with the author — to facilitate more dialogue across political lines of the sort the book has inspired since it was published.
~ HOPE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IN AN ERA OF DEEP DIVISIONS ~ In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good and gives us the tools to do it. This timely, courageous and practical work — intensely personal as well as political — is not about them, “those people” in Washington D.C., or in our state capitals, on whom we blame our political problems. It’s about us, “We the People,” and what we can do in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to resist divide-and-conquer politics and restore a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
In the same compelling, inspiring prose that has made him a bestselling author, Palmer explores five “habits of the heart” that can help us restore democracy’s foundations as we nurture them in ourselves and each other: (1) An understanding that we are all in this together. (2) An appreciation of the value of “otherness.” (3) An ability to hold tensions in life-giving ways. (4) A sense of personal voice and agency. (5) A capacity to create community. Healing the Heart of Democracy is an eloquent and empowering call for “We the People” to reclaim our democracy. Publishers Weekly, in a *Starred Review*, said “This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it.” And the online journal Democracy & Education called it “one of the most important books of the early 21st Century.”