The prominent contributors in Friends and Citizens examine the relationship between friendship and politics in American thought and contend that democratic politics is incomplete without citizen friendship, and, similarly, friends need political life to provide a framework for virtue. This volume honors Wilson Carey McWilliams, a leading teacher and scholar of our time. Fourteen essays, by teachers, colleagues and students, pay tribute to him as friend and citizen, and seek to share their understanding of McWilliams’s thinking through their own analyses of American political life. Friends and Citizens is rich in the humor, insights, heritage, despair and hope that characterize the work of Carey McWilliams and his unique vision of America’s political promise. This is an important book for anyone interested in modern politics.