In a time of alarm about the poisoning of electoral politics, public passions inflamed by sophisticated techniques of mass polarization, and fears that the country is losing control of its collective future, higher education is called upon to take leadership in "reinventing citizenship." It needs to respond to that call on a scale unprecedented in its history. But there are obstacles in the way, including prevailing understandings of "citizenship" with roots in the late 1960s that have rarely been interrogated. Drawing on the author's experiences during college in the freedom movement of the 1960s, as well as histories and literatures that illuminate a tradition largely unknown to today's college students, he argues that in redefining the term, one needs to go beyond bellicose nationalism and legalistic definitions of citizenship on the one hand and the "citizen-of-the-world" model widespread in liberal education on the other. In an era of globalization, there is new urgency for citizens to learn the skills and identity of empowered citizenship in their own societies, linked to the democratic aspirations and struggles of others around the world. The challenging patriotism from past movements that sought the deepening of democracy in America has renewed relevance in 21st-century America. (Contains 1 resource.)