In Defense of Partisan Criticism is a far-reaching exploration of the legal philosophical and
rhetorical basis for understanding social justice in the United States. Through a thoughtful
investigation of key political social and legal events in the history of the United States
Omar Swartz develops a compelling argument for engaged political scholarship by American
academics and offers readers a critical understanding of the place of race and class in
American cultural history. Central to this understanding is an awareness of the «communication
imagination» - the power of citizens to name the constraints placed upon them by U.S. political
and legal institutions and to counter those constraints with narratives constructing a more
socially just society based upon a wider sense of human identification and partisan engagement
than is currently practiced in the normative U.S. public sphere.
