ROSENBLUM, Nancy L. 1947-

PERSONAL: Born November 11, 1947, in San Francisco, CA; married Richard Rosenblum (a sculptor), 1970; children: Anna. Education: Radcliffe College, B.A., 1969; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES: Home—63 Lake Ave., Newton Centre, MA 02459. Offıce—Harvard University, Littauer 318, North Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Educator and author. Harvard University, assistant professor, 1973-77, associate professor, 1977-80, visiting professor, 1985, Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, 2001—; Brown University, Providence, RI, professor, 1980—, professor of political science, 1985-2001, chairperson of political science department, 1989-95, Henry Merritt Wriston Professor, 1997—, Steven Robert Initiative for the Study of Values, founder and director, 1998-2000.

MEMBER: Conference for the Study of Political Thought (executive committee, 1988—, planning board), American Political Science Association (council member, 1991-93), National Commission on Civic Values, 1996-98, Tocqueville Society (council member, 2001—).

AWARDS, HONORS: Harvard University, Graduate Prize Fellowship, 1969-72, Toppan Prize, best doctoral dissertation in political science, 1975; National Endowment of the Humanities, 1975, 1980; Bunting Institute fellow, Radcliffe College, 1988; Harvard Law School Liberal Arts fellowship, 1992-93; Kalamazoo College, honorary degree, 1993; David Easton Award, Foundations of Political Theory Group, 2002, for Membership and Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America.

WRITINGS:

Bentham's Theory of the Modern State, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1978.

Another Liberalism: Romanticism and the Reconstruction of Liberal Thought, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1988.

Liberalism and the Moral Life, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1989.

(Editor) Political Writings/Thoreau, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Membership and Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1998.

(Editor) Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2000.

(Editor) Martha Minow, Breaking the Cycles of Hatred: Memory, Law and Repair, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2002.

(Editor, with Robert C. Post) Civil Society and Government, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2002.

Review editor, 1989-93, and member of editorial board, 1993-97, Political Theory; member of editorial board, Annual Review of Political Science, 2002—.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Two books, Primus Inter Pares: Political Parties and Civil Society, and American Romanticism.

SIDELIGHTS: Nancy L. Rosenblum is an acclaimed political theorist, professor, and author. In her many works as both author and editor, Rosenblum explores the relationship between individuals, groups, and government, religion's place in society and government, liberalist thought, and a variety of other topics. Rosenblum's works provide insight into political conventions affecting contemporary American society.

Rosenblum's early works include Bentham's Theory of the Modern State, Another Liberalism: Romanticism and Reconstruction of Liberal Thought, and Liberalism and Moral Life. The latter was praised by National Review critic Joseph Sobran as "rich, original, and stimulating." Sobran claimed Liberalism and Moral Life made him "see familiar questions in a new light."

The book examines liberalist thought in terms of an individual's moral convictions and differentiates between those moral convictions and their place in a political spectrum. Sobran explained, "To ask a judge to ignore a defendant's religion is in no way to disparage the importance of religion in the defendant's own life, merely to affirm its irrelevance to the cause at hand." The book provides "more than one insight that any political philosophy worthy of the name will have to reckon with," concluded Sobran.

In her Membership and Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America, Rosenblum examines individuals' associations with groups, and the relevance of these associations in politics. Rosenblum describes people's experiences with groups to which they do and do not belong. According to Jon Mandle of the American Political Science Review, "The importance of civil society in character formation has led social theorists to focus increasingly on associations." Rosenblum explains how individuals help shape a group and how groups shape individuals. Her argument is that associations and groups fill a person's psychological and moral needs. She contemplates democracy's role in creating and maintaining associations, as well as a person's freedoms to join or leave an association at any time. Critic H. Mark Roelofs of the Review of Politics noted that Rosenblum does not give readers a "sustaining definition of her central subject," but Mandle concluded that the book "is essential for anyone interested in the theory and practice of civil society in the United States."

In Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies, Rosenblum explains religion's role among the contemporary American public. Many authors contributed to the book, including Alan Wolfe, Ronald Thiemann, and Michael McConnell. The writers argue that more room should be made for religion in today's society. A critic for the Law and Politics Book Review Web site commented that the book "contains a diversity of voices and perspectives" and "gives a new and thoughtful voice to believers and to the significance or value of their beliefs for democratic politics and civic engagement."

Rosenblum edited Martha Minow's book, Breaking the Cycles of Hatred: Memory, Law, and Repair. Breaking the Cycles of Hatred is, according to a writer for Law and Social Inquiry, an examination of "the double-edged role of memory in fueling cycles of hatred and maintaining justice and personal integrity." The book's contributors include political theorists, psychologists, historians, and law experts. Among the many topics debated in the book are hate crimes, child sexual abuse, and the statute of limitations.

Rosenblum collaborated with Robert C. Post, a professor of law, on the book, Civil Society and Government. Together, Rosenblum and Post collected a number of essays and perspectives about the relationship between civil society and the government. The editors and contributing authors attempt to explain, among other topics, the line between civil society and the state, the duties of citizenship, and the role of civil society in creating good citizens. Civil Society and Government, commented Foreign Affairs reviewer John Ikenberry, summarizes that civil society is the realm in which individuals can decide for themselves their identity and purpose, while government is "the domain of common purpose and identity." Ikenberry recommended the book as "a cautionary tale for those in search of universal principles of freedom, pluralism, and social justice."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1989, Bruce Mazlish, review of Another Liberalism: Romanticism and the Reconstruction of Liberal Thought, p. 1059.

American Political Science Review, December, 1988, Susan Moller Okin, review of Another Liberalism, p. 1360; December, 1990, Steven Kelman, review of Liberalism and the Moral Life, p. 1362; June, 1999, Jon Mandle, review of Membership and Morals: The Political Uses of Pluralism in America, p. 439.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October, 2002, P. Coby, review of Civil Society and Government, p. 356.

Church History, March, 2002, Nancy T. Ammerman, review of Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies, p. 224.

Harvard Law Review, May, 1999, review of Membership and Morals, p. 1798.

Journal of Politics, November, 1999, review of Membership and Morals, p. 1183.

Law and Social Inquiry, summer, 2003, review of Breaking the Cycles of Hatred: Memory, Law, and Repair, p. 881.

National Review, November 24, 1989, Joseph Sobran, review of Liberalism and the Moral Life, p. 48.

New Republic, June 1, 1998, Alan Wolfe, review of Membership and Morals, p. 36.

Political Studies, June, 1989, Richard Jay, review of Another Liberalism, p. 333.

Review of Politics, spring, 2000, H. Mark Roelofs, "Joining Up," review of Membership and Morals, p. 385.

Times Literary Supplement, May 4, 1990, George Crowder, review of Liberalism and the Moral Life, p. 476; September 25, 1998, review of Membership and Morals, p. 8.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1999, review of Membership and Morals, p. 26.

Yale Journal of International Law, summer, 2003, Steven Wu, review of Breaking the Cycles of Hatred, p. 593.

ONLINE

Foreign Affairs Web site,http://www.foreignaffairs.org/ (November 23, 2002), John Ikenberry, review of Civil Society and Government.

Law and Politics Book Review Web site,http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/ (November 23, 2002), John Paul Ryan, review of Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith.

Princeton University Press Web site,http://pup.princeton.edu/ (November 23, 2002), reviews and summaries of Civil Society and Government, Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith, Breaking the Cycles of Hatred, and Membership and Morals.*