Macon, Georgia-Democracy in Twenty-First Century America: Notes on Race, Class, Religion, and Region is an exercise in religious and political philosophy. Fundamentally concerned with the racial and economic crisis of democracy in the United States, this book engages the new face of inequality in America and the new challenges presented to the American democratic project. Neal claims that the racial and economic inequality of today are reflective of two Americas- First World America and Third World America-which were made visible in 2005 through the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina’s devastation revealed social conditions that are pervasive throughout America and the South. ln particular, it revealed a class of abandoned citizens who are referred to throughout this book as America’s Least Wanted.
Addressing the population of one Southern state, South Carolina, this book contends that the vestiges of America’s past are now compounded with unprecedented racial and economic dilemmas. Such a state of affairs calls for reinvigorated religious and political thinking where democracy is concerned. The author turns to the thought of Benjamin Elijah Mays, a religious and political thinker who contributed to the expansion of American democracy during the latter half of the twentieth century and is one resource for engaging the crisis of democracy in twenty-first century America.
[box_light]Ronald B. Neal’s (PhD Vanderbilt University) research and writing interests include religion, gender, culture, religion, ethics and politics, modern and postmodern philosophy, Third World cultures, and popular culture. He is the present chairman of the Committee on Black Cultures and the Study of Religion, a sectional division of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR). Currently, he is a visiting assistant professor in the department of Religion at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[/box_light]
