Civility and Its Discontents: Civic Virtue, Toleration, and Cultural Fragmentation.

• Author: Galloway, Ryan
• Position: Book Review

Civility and Its Discontents: Civic Virtue, Toleration, and Cultural Fragmentation. Edited by Christine T. Sistare. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004; pp. vii + 310. $39.95 cloth; $19.95 paper.

Christine Sistare's Civility and Its Discontents features a collection of essays on civic virtue and tolerance in modern democracies. While Sistare wonders if the subject matter is "quaintly inapt" (vii) in a post-9/11 world, Civility and Its Discontents offers provocative articles exploring respect in public discourse and displaying a genuine desire to foster understanding of conflicting viewpoints in the public sphere. The book's essays address the significance of public discourse, civic education, and the question whether society should impose positive obligations upon citizens to help others in emergencies. The book closes with a comparative essay on the difficulties Germany faces in adapting to its multicultural society. While the home disciplines of the essayists are ethics, law, political science, and philosophy, the work nevertheless provides rhetorical scholars with a wealth of background material and several case studies on a wide range of controversial, contemporary issues.

Two features of the book should be attractive to scholars in our field. First, the anthology promises to move the debate about "civility" beyond the ordinary definition of "treating others kindly" in discourse. The book looks at civic virtue and good citizenship, including the idea of a "meaningful civility" which "draws from deeper sources than mere politeness" (8). The distinction between rudeness, rasp, and repudiation, developed by Jonathan Schonsheck, develops a useful vocabulary for describing what we mean by civility in the public sphere. In an era when many worry about the fragmentation of community life, the application of the concept of civility to civic virtue and a duty toward others in democratic societies is a welcome addition to scholarship on public discourse.

In addition, in-depth case studies of important subjects should interest rhetorical critics. Each essay takes on a current issue, such as multiculturalism, hate speech codes, and the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Christopher Gray's essay concerning the constitutionality of abortion, same sex marriages, and hate crimes may serve as a useful starting point for rhetorical scholars investigating race and gender issues. Wade Robison's essay on constitution writing may be useful for...