Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer
Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer
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Healing the Heart of Democracy
The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit

Author: Parker J. Palmer

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 7 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/20/2020


Synopsis

In his newest book, Parker J. Palmer builds on his own extensive experience as a an inner life explorer and social change activist to examine the personal and social infrastructure of American politics. What he did for educators in The Courage to Teach he does here for citizens by looking at the dynamics of our inner lives for clues to reclaiming our civic well-being. In Healing the Heart of Democracy, he points the way to a politics rooted in the commonwealth of compassion and creativity still found among We the People.  Democracy, writes Palmer, is a non-stop experiment in the strengths and weaknesses of our political institutions, local communities, and the human heartand its outcome can never be taken for granted. The experiment is endless, unless we blow up the lab, and the explosives to do the job are found within us. But so also is the hearts alchemy that can turn suffering into compassion, conflict into community, and tension into energy for creativity amid democracys demands.  Healing the Heart of Democracy names the habits of the heart we need to revitalize our politics and shows how they can be formed in the everyday venues of our lives. Palmer proposes practical and hopeful methods to hold the tensions of our differences in a manner that can help us restore a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

About Parker J. Palmer

Parker J. Palmer, whose books have sold more than two million copies, holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and thirteen honorary doctorates. Palmer is a recipient of the William Rainey Harper Award, previously given to Margaret Mead, Paulo Freire, and Elie Wiesel. He is founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal.


Reviews

Goodreads review by robin on September 14, 2022

The Politics Of The Brokenhearted In times of national difficulty, it is both tempting and desirable to step back, reflect upon the situation, and see what might be done to make things better. The process might carry its own danger in the rush to either easy or impracticable answers. I took the oppor......more

Goodreads review by Michael on February 13, 2012

I have really appreciated Parker Palmer's books over the years but this book is a profound disappointment. I quit reading at the halfway point. If you are a liberal/progressive, then I suspect you may enjoy the book. It plays very well into the meme that at core of the discord in our country are con......more

Goodreads review by George on December 08, 2019

Important and wise but it wasn’t revelatory for me. It was a good summary of needed principles but maybe in way that felt too theoretical and abstract.......more

Goodreads review by Kyra deGruy on April 13, 2017

I love Parker J Palmer SO much. This book was divine. Both practical and emotional, it completely shifted my perspective about divisiveness and how to bridge the gap between polarities. Highly recommend!......more

Goodreads review by Kathrina on June 22, 2018

Really useful.......more