Civic matters affect all members of a community and are thus of potential concern to all. In Community Matters: Challenges to Civic Engagement in the 21st Century, six distinguished scholars address three perennial challenges of civic life: the making of a citizen, how citizens are to agree (and disagree), and how to define the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The thought-provoking essays in this volume discuss integral civic concerns such as: how can we improve civic education? How do we address controversy within our communities? What are the responsibilities of a citizen? Should the national draft be re-instated in the U.S? These essays will encourage students, academics, and interested citizens outside the academy to go farther and dig deeper into these vital issues.

Verna V. Gehring is editor at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, and editor of Philosophy& Public Policy Quarterly.

Chapter 1 I. The Challenge of Civic EducationChapter 2 Solving the Civic Achievement Gap in De Facto Segregated SchoolsChapter 3 Civic Education and Political ParticipationChapter 4 II. The Challenge of Civic DebateChapter 5 State Symbals and MulticulturalismChapter 6 Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum ControversyChapter 7 III. Service in Deed?: Civic Engagement and the Prospect of Mandatory Military ServiceChapter 8 A Sketch of Some Arguments for ConscriptionChapter 9 ConscriptionNoChapter 10 Conscription: Between the Horns