Authority

Analyzing the 1992 incident in which antinuclear activist Rick Springer disrupted a Las Vegas speech given by former president Ronald Reagan, Lincoln questions Arendt's claims. He does not find a diminution of authority or a fundamental change in the conditions that produce it. Rather, Lincoln finds modern authority splintered, expanded, and, in fact, multiplied as the mechanisms for its construction become more complex - and more expensive. A lively, wide-ranging exploration of the concept of authority, this book will interest anyone concerned with the production and contestation of authority in the modern world.