America, Aristotle, and the Politics of a Middle Class

Dr Leslie Rubin (1954-2017) was an independent scholar who taught political philosophy and American politics at Kenyon College, the University of Houston, and Duquesne University. She was retired from the directorship of the North American chapter of the Society for Greek Political Thought.

Introduction: Politics and the Political Animal Part I: Aristotle's Republic Chapter 1. A Practical Republic: Aristotle's Real-World Politics Chapter 2. Citizens, Rulers, and the Law: Aristotle on Political Authority Chapter 3. The Best Regime: Aristotle's Middle-Class Republic Part II: The American Founders' Republic Chapter 4. ""Happy Mediocrity"": America's Middle Class Chapter 5. Citizen Virtue: ""Simple Manners"" among the ""Laborious and Saving"" Chapter 6. Securing America's Future: Moral Education in a Middle-Class Republic Conclusion: For Aristotle and America, Why the Middle Class Matters Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography General Index

Most people assume that classical political philosophy can't possibly be relevant to the modern world. Leslie Rubin, however, is wise enough to see, and learned enough to explain for us, Aristotle's very real importance to understanding the American regime. This book is an excellent resource for students of Aristotle, students of the American founding, and for all those who wish to think more deeply about how America can preserve a stable and just politics based on the flourishing of a decent and moderate middle class. -- Carson Holloway, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha If Rubin's book prompts students of American politics to go back and read or reread their Aristotle with fresh eyes, this alone would be a signal accomplishment. She has given us an American founding less modern than we might have thought, and an Aristotle less ancient - In the political science classroom and beyond, Leslie Rubin's portrait of Aristotelian America and American Aristotelianism is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of our situation. -- Matthew J. Franck -- Public Discourse A timely contribution to the ongoing discussion on the nature and value of the American founding and the important role the middle class plays in the preservation of a republic. -- Choice Leslie Rubin's final work is a resource for all who are alert to the intellectual and civic crises caused by various extreme or singleminded views of recent centuries. Her detailed and balanced analysis of the moderate spirit of Aristotle's political science, and of an analogous moderation in America's founding political thought, is an intellectual achievement. It elevates our conversations in political philosophy, and about constitutional liberal democracy. Her argument also achieves, in practice, the Aristotelian standard she believes best for political science: that scholars also should make a civic contribution, as the minimal duty of grateful citizens. -- Paul Carrese -- Public Discourse America, Aristotle, and the Politics of a Middle Class perfectly blends classical and modern political theory in illuminating the importance of the middle class in both antiquity and modernity. The book is especially relevant now with our eroding middle class and the resultant political polarization and dysfunction that plagues our government. By returning both to the American founders and Aristotle, Rubin provides us a path to see where we, as a country, have been and how far we have strayed. If we want to understand the underlying causes for our current political predicament and how we may be able to emerge out of it, America, Aristotle, and the Politics of a Middle Class is the antidote that we are seeking. -- Lee Trepanier -- VoegelinView Leslie Rubin's America, Aristotle, and the Politics of a Middle Class restores Aristotle and the American Founding's political philosophy of republicanism to a place of honor...Stressing the 'middling' citizen character required for republican self-government, she cautions us against expecting human greatness in republican American. -- Ken Masugi -- Claremont Review of Books