Putting history and theory to work, elaborating the arguments in the book Freedom's Power, responding to criticism—those are the aims of this blog.
Of course, I hope that if you haven't read the book, you will. And if you have read it, you'll find the blog and its archives a useful complement.
This blog is itself part of a new phenomenon in publishing. Until recently, when an author finished the last revisions on a book, that was the end of it. The book became fixed in print, at least until the next edition, if it ever had one.
Now the web allows for a new kind of conversation to be built around a book. I included a reference to this web site at the end of the table of contents to Freedom's Power. So, in a sense, I am continuing to work on it—and if you post comments, you are too.
Paul Starr