Authority and Trust in US Culture and Society

Authority and Trust in US Culture and Society

Interdisciplinary Approaches and Perspectives

In: American Culture Studies, 30

Edited by: Günter Leypoldt and Manfred Berg

transcript-Verlag | 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839451892

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About this book

In the past two decades, a discourse of crisis has emerged about the democratic institutions and political culture of the US: Many structures of authority which people had more or less taken for granted are facing a massive public loss of trust. This volume takes an interdisciplinary and historical look at the transformations of authority and trust in the United States. The contributors examine government institutions, political parties, urban neighborhoods, scientific experts, international leadership, religious communities, and literary production. Exploring the nexus between authority and trust is crucial to understand the loss of legitimacy experienced by political, social, and cultural institutions not only in the United States but in Western democracies at large.

Author information

Manfred Berg is the Curt Engelhorn Professor of American History at Heidelberg University. He is the author and editor of nineteen books, including The Ticket to Freedom: The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration (2005); Popular Justice: A History of Lynching in America (2011); Woodrow Wilson. Amerika und die Neuordnung der Welt. Eine Biographie (2017).
Günter Leypoldt is a professor of American literature and culture at Heidelberg University, the author of Cultural Authority in the Age of Whitman: A Transatlantic Perspective (2009), and editor of Intellectual Authority and Literary Culture in the US, 1790-1900 (2013) and Reading Practices (2015).

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	1
Contents Free access PDF PDF	5
Preface Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	7
Introduction Günter Leypoldt Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	9
The Decline of Political Trust and the Rise of Populism in the United States Manfred Berg Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	37
Waning Trust in (Scientific) Experts and Expertise? Martin Thunert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	61
Shifting Meridians of Global Authority Florian Böller and Sebastian Harnisch Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	87
Trust and the City Ulrike Gerhard, Judith Keller and Cosima Werner Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	111
“We must trust that look of hers” Margit Peterfy Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	135
“We believe that we have a right to revelations, visions, and dreams from God” Jan Stievermann and Claudia Jetter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	167
The Trust Debate in the Literature of the American Renaissance Dietmar Schloss Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	191
Authority, Genealogy, Infrastructure Tim Sommer Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	223
Shoppers, Worshippers, Culture Warriors Günter Leypoldt Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	245
List of Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	277

Authority and Trust in US Culture and Society

Interdisciplinary Approaches and Perspectives

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