The Good City and the Good Life: Renewing the American Community

by Daniel Kemmis

The author offers down-to-earth commentary on the nature of citizenship and political responsibility, as he uses personal experience to explore democracy as a human enterprise

226 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and humane vision of what a city is and could become.

[Russell Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Daniel Kemmis's previous book, Community and the Politics of Place, this book can be read very productively in connection with other works that came out in the mid-1990s, which addressed in different ways the communitarian and civic republican concerns what occupied the minds of so many good thinkers at that time. Kemmis is here, again, asking about citizenship and democracy, but rather than speaking broadly about "territoriality" and the need for American citizens to be re-engaged with their places as understood in both natural and legal terms, his focus here is a very specific sort of constructed place: the city. He anticipated in this book by fifteen years the current focus on urbanism, on re-thinking citizenship in terms of being a "city-zen," but it is not a work of urban sociology. Rather, he is making an argument that the best understandings of political community and fellowship almost invariably have to involve paying attention to city life, because it is in cities that places are constructed where people can learn how to be, and thus show off the fruits of being, civilized--that is, tolerant, educated, and fully present to other people despite the busy-ness of modern life. My favorite parts of the book are these early ones, where he talks about farmers markets, community theaters, and public architecture as different ways to bring into the lives of a group of people who live close to and interact with one another the sorts of routines, expectations, positions, and genuine (but usually not threatening) surprises that make for a civilized life. He finds surprising (to me, anyway) ways to bring into his discussion not only important communitarian thinkers like Michael Sandel, or urbanists like Jane Jacobs, but also the thinkers of antiquity like Aristotle or Virgil, and philosophers like Martin Heidegger. And along with all this, he gives some genuinely practical ideas about city politics and making use of one's "natural" city-state. An excellent, insightful read.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who would have known that the life of a mayor could be so beautifully portrayed as in Kemmis’ The Good City? Not only is his book deeply engaging and thoughtful, the message is encouraging and offers the reader a course of action. The overall sense of responsibility as an active citizen is certainly captured in this text and the reader is left full of an eagerness to participate. What Kemmis has done is paved the way for the concerned citizen to find meaning and action within his city. Beginning with the summer Farmer’s Markets and finishing with the town hall meetings, Kemmis offers numerous places for the citizen to actively engage in the life of the city.