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'The sheer range of West's interests and insights is staggering and exemplary: he appears equally comfortable talking about literature, ethics, art, jurisprudence, religion, and popular-cultural forms.' - ArtforumKeeping Faith is a rich, moving and deeply personal collection of essays from one of the leading African American intellectuals of our age. Drawing upon the traditions of Western philosophy and modernity, Cornel West critiques structures of power and oppression as they operate within American society and provides a way of thinking about human dignity and difference afresh. Impressive

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 The Emersonian Prehistory of American Pragmatism -- Emerson on Power (and Tradition) -- Emerson on Provocation (and the Market) -- Emerson on Personality (and Race) -- Emerson on Organic Intellectual -- 2 The Historic Emergence of American Pragmatism -- Peirce on Scientific Method, Community, and Christian Love -- James on Individuality, Reconciliation, and Heroic Energies -- 3 The Coming-of-Age of American Pragmatism: John Dewey -- Dewey on Historical Consciousness, Critical Intelligence, and creative Democracy -- 4 The Dilemma of the Mid-Century Pragmatic Intellectual -- Sidney Hook: The Deweyen Political Intellecrual -- C. Wright Mills: The Neo-Deweyan Radical Social Critic -- W.E.B. Du Bois: The Jamesian Cultural Critic -- Reinhold Niebuhr: The Jamesian Cultural Critic -- Lionel Trilling: The Pragmatist as Arnoldian Literary Critic -- 5 the Decline and Resurgence of American Pragmatism: W.V. Quine and Richard Rorty -- 6. Prophetic Pragmatism: Cultural Criticism and Political Engagement -- Roverto Unger and Third-Wave Left Romanticism -- The Challenge of Michel Foucault -- Tragedy, Tradition, and Political Praxis -- Prophetic Pragmatism and Postmodernity -- Notes -- Index.

How in the past have writers, artists, intellectuals, and activists kept alive a tradition of struggle for decency, dignity, freedom, and democracy? What are the ways in which we can keep alive this tradition of struggle today?

Examines the nature, challenges, & implications of the new cultural politics of difference (CPD). The distinctive characteristics of CPD are (1) a rejection of homogeneity in favor of diversity, multiplicity, & heterogeneity; (2) the privileging of the concrete, specific, & particular; & (3) emphasis on the context, flexibility, & provisional nature of knowledge. It is argued that CPD represents a creative response to the precise circumstances of the present historical moment in which various groups & individuals seek transformation & deconstruction of marginalizing discourses, institutions, & practices. However, many proponents of CPD face a continual struggle between their dual commitments to deconstruction of institutional borders & their own roles as academics or administrators within these institutions. These cultural critics must also confront an intellectual challenge: the synthesis of academic knowledge & action with the world of history, culture, & society. Advocates of CPD must attempt to forge alliances & solidarity while simultaneously asserting the importance of difference, personal autonomy & agency, & individual freedom. 1 Figure. T. Sevier