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What is Americanism? The contributors to this volume recognize Americanism in all its complexity -- as an ideology, an articulation of the nation's rightful place in the world, a set of traditions, a political language, and a cultural style imbued with political meaning. In response to the pervasive vision of Americanism as a battle cry or a smug assumption, this collection of essays stirs up new questions and debates that challenge us to rethink the model currently being exported, too often by force, to the rest of the world.



Crafted by a cast of both rising and renowned intellectuals from three continents, the twelve essays in this volume are divided into two sections. The first group of essays addresses the understanding of Americanism within the United States over the past two centuries, from the early republic to the war in Iraq. The second section provides perspectives from around the world in an effort to make sense of how the national creed and its critics have shaped diplomacy, war, and global culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Approaching a controversial ideology as both scholars and citizens, many of the essayists call for a revival of the ideals of Americanism in a new progressive politics that can bring together an increasingly polarized and fragmented citizenry.



Contributors:

Mia Bay, Rutgers University

Jun Furuya, Hokkaido University, Japan

Gary Gerstle, University of Maryland

Jonathan M. Hansen, Harvard University

Michael Kazin, Georgetown University

Rob Kroes, University of Amsterdam

Melani McAlister, The George Washington University

Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University

Alan McPherson, Howard University

Louis Menand, Harvard University

Mae M. Ngai, University of Chicago

Robert Shalhope, University of Oklahoma

Stephen J. Whitfield, Brandeis University

Alan Wolfe, Boston College

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CHOICE Review

"Americanism" is a capacious and illusive concept that has waxed and waned in importance throughout US history. Currently, thanks especially to the reaction to 9/11 and to the heated debate over immigration reform, discourse on Americanism is in a period of major resurgence, making this book especially timely. The quality, significance, and relevance to Americanism of these 12 wide-ranging and eclectic essays, which originated in a 2003 scholarly conference, vary substantially, and their specific approaches and topics are predictably haphazard. Chronologically, the essays address both historical and contemporary themes and are divided between those with an internal US focus and those with more global perspectives. While there is no universal theme, the prospect of reviving a "liberal/progressive nationalism" is an important common denominator. Specific topics include republicanism in early US history; revolutionary ideology and African Americans; Henry Luce's famous but seldom read "The American Century" essay; the 1965 immigration act; Americanism and the Vietnam War; the success of religious toleration and diversity in the contemporary US; and Japanese and French views of Americanism. Altogether, the strengths easily outweigh the weaknesses, and this book successfully opens the discussion of a critical aspect of US history and contemporary life. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. K. Blaser Wayne State College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Michael Kazin is professor of history at Georgetown University and author or coauthor of four books, including William Jennings Bryan: A Godly Hero and America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s . Joseph A. McCartin is associate professor of history at Georgetown University. He is author of Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-1921 (from the University of North Carolina Press) and coeditor of American Labor: A Documentary Collection .