Political speech in the United States is undergoing a crisis. Glendon's acclaimed book traces the evolution of the strident language of rights in America and shows how it has captured the nation's devotion to individualism and liberty, but omitted the American traditions of hospitality and care for the community.

In arguing that feminism has neither adequately acknowledged its ties to individualism nor squarely faced the extent to which many of its campaigns for social justice are based on the insistence of rights for the individual over good of the community, this study analyzes current political theory and its application to affirmative action, comparative worth and abortion rights. The author also examines the debate over feminist history and the relationship between feminism and postmodernism.

Focusing on the Western philosophical tradition and the work of contemporary feminists, Jean Elshtain explores the general tendency to assert the primacy of the public world--the political sphere dominated by men--and to denigrate the private world--the familial sphere dominated by women. She offers her own positive reconstruction of the public and the private in a feminist theory that reaffirms the importance of the family and envisions an "ethical polity."