Taking a comprehensive look at institutional and leadership practices in recent public debates over a variety of hot button public policy issues, "Public Discourse in America" outlines how such conversations can be used to reintegrate our fragmented communities and bridge barriers of difference and hostility among communities and individuals.

Prologue: The Work of the Penn National Commission
—Judith Rodin
Introduction: Incivility and Public Discourse
—Judith Rodin and Stephen P. Steinberg

PART ONE. PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND DEMOCRACY
1. The Thinning of American Political Culture
—Thomas Bender
2. Primary Tensions in American Public Life
—Robert H. Wiebe
3. Deliberative Democracy and Public Discourse
—David M. Ryfe

PART TWO. CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE: TALKING ABOUT RACE
4. Affirmative Action and the Culture of Intolerance
—Christopher Edley, Jr
5. The North American
—Richard Rodriguez
6. Sports and Public Behavior
—Richard Lapchick
7. Performance, Debate, or Productive Conversation? Imagining an Exemplary Conversation on Race
—Drew Gilpin Faust and Members of the Penn National Commission

PART THREE. LEADING THE PUBLIC'S CONVERSATION: STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE LEADERSHIP
8. Leadership in a Complex Democratic Society
—Michael Schudson
9. Political Leadership in the Great Health Care Debate of 1993-1994
—Derek Bok
10. Part of Our World: Journalism as Civic Leadership
—Jay Rosen
11. Modeling Public Discourse in Popular Culture
—Neal Gabler

PART FOUR: DISCOURSE OF RECONCILIATION: TRUTH, APOLOGY, AND FORGIVENESS
12. Creating a National Discourse: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa
—Alex Boraine
13. Political Apologies and Public Discourse
—Graham G. Dodds

PART FIVE: Thickening Public Discourse: Principles and Practices
14. The Principles of Public Discourse: What Is Good Public Discourse?
—David M. Ryfe
15. A Paradox of Public Discourse and Political Democracy
—Neil Smelser
16. The Practice of Public Discourse: A Study of Sixteen Discourse Organizations
—David M. Ryfe
17. Lessons from the Field: Practitioner Perspectives on Public Discourse Programs
—Jay Rosen and Members of the Penn National Commission

PART SIX: CREATING COMMUNITY THROUGH PUBLIC DISCOURSE
18. Building Community in the Twenty-First Century
—Joyce Appleby
19. The Myth of Academic Community
—Don M. Randel
20. The University as Discourse Community
—Judith Rodin
21. Creating Community in Cyberspace: Criteria for a Discourse Technology Project
—Stephen P. Steinberg

Epilogue: The Centrality of Public Discourse
—Stephen P. Steinberg

Notes
Contributors
Bibliography
Index
Members of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture and Community
Acknowledgments

Judith Rodin is President of the Rockefeller Foundation and President Emerita of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Stephen P. Steinberg is Advisor to the President at the University of Pennsylvania and former Director of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture, and Community.