Alexander Livingston is an associate professor in the department of government at Cornell University and the author of Damn Great Empires! William James and the Politics of Pragmatism.
Establishment pundits love to cite Martin Luther King as a way to delegitimize militant protests and shame unruly protesters. But King wasn’t a proponent of passive, compliant protest — to him, nonviolent action was about forging a powerful collective force that could coerce ruling elites into conceding to demands for justice.
John Dewey is commonly seen as the liberal philosopher par excellence. But his staunch commitment to democracy put him on a collision course with capitalism.
Steve Bannon’s vision of civilizational crisis and violent renewal has deep roots in the American political tradition.