Theemergenceofcitizenship,some4,000yearsago,wasahingemomentinhumanhistory.Insteadofthereignofblooddescent,questionsregardingwhorulesandwhobelongswereopenedup.Yetpurportedlyprimordialcategories,suchassexandrace,haveconstrainedtheemergenceofatrulycivicpolityeversince.Untyingthisparadoxisessentialtoovercomingthecrisisafflictingcontemporarydemocracies.Whydoescitizenshipemerge,historically,andwhydoesitmaintaintraction,evenifincompromisedforms?Howcancitizenshipanddemocracyberevived?Learningfromhistoryandbuildingonemergingsocialandpoliticaldevelopments,DavidJacobsonandManlioCinalliprovidethefoundationsforcitizenship’sthirdrevolution.Citizenship:TheThirdRevolutionconsidersthreerevolutionaryperiodsforcitizenship,fromtheancientandclassicalworlds;totheflourishingofguildsandcityrepublicsfrom1,000CE;andtotheunfinishedrevolutionofhumanrightsfromthepost-WorldWarIIperiod.Throughhistoricalenquiry,thisbookrevealstheunderlyingprinciplesofcitizenship-anditsradicalpromise.JacobsonandCinallidemonstratehowtheeffectivefunctioningofcitizenshipdependsonhumanconnectionsthatarerelationalandnon-contractual,nottransactional.Theyillustratehowrights,paradoxically,canundermineaswellasreinforcecivicsociety.Lookingforward,thebookdocumentstheemergingfoundationsofa“21stcenturyguild“asabasisforrepairingourdemocracies.Theoutcomeofthisscholarshipisaninnovativere-conceptualizationofcoreideastoengendermoreauthenticciviccollectivities.
