Obama's America

Obama's America PDF Author: Ian Reifowitz
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612344720
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Our national identity is defined by what it means to be an American and whom we include and why when we talk about “the American people.” A country’s national identity is fluid, and Ian Reifowitz argues that President Barack Obama, by emphasizing the ideals Americans hold dear, hopes to redefine ours in a fundamental way. Obama’s conception of America emphasizes two principles of national unity: First, all Americans, regardless of their heritage and cultural traditions, should identify with America as their country, based upon shared democratic values, a shared history, and a shared fate. Second, America should embrace all its citizens as active participants in one “family.” Reifowitz explores Obama’s belief that strengthening our common bonds will encourage Americans to rectify the injustices and heal the racial divisions that still plague our country. We have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that a society of many races and cultures can truly become one people. In facing terrorism, violent fundamentalism, and other security issues, Obama’s response centers on a powerful, inspiring, and truly inclusive American narrative. By bolstering America’s identity as diverse yet unified, he aims both to counter the anxieties and fears that radicalism stokes and give proponents of religious and political freedom a model they can defend. The stakes couldn’t be any higher in determining America’s future.

Obama's America

Obama's America PDF Author: Ian Reifowitz
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612344720
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
Our national identity is defined by what it means to be an American and whom we include and why when we talk about “the American people.” A country’s national identity is fluid, and Ian Reifowitz argues that President Barack Obama, by emphasizing the ideals Americans hold dear, hopes to redefine ours in a fundamental way. Obama’s conception of America emphasizes two principles of national unity: First, all Americans, regardless of their heritage and cultural traditions, should identify with America as their country, based upon shared democratic values, a shared history, and a shared fate. Second, America should embrace all its citizens as active participants in one “family.” Reifowitz explores Obama’s belief that strengthening our common bonds will encourage Americans to rectify the injustices and heal the racial divisions that still plague our country. We have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that a society of many races and cultures can truly become one people. In facing terrorism, violent fundamentalism, and other security issues, Obama’s response centers on a powerful, inspiring, and truly inclusive American narrative. By bolstering America’s identity as diverse yet unified, he aims both to counter the anxieties and fears that radicalism stokes and give proponents of religious and political freedom a model they can defend. The stakes couldn’t be any higher in determining America’s future.

The Lost Territories

The Lost Territories PDF Author: Shane Strate
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824854373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
It is a cherished belief among Thai people that their country was never colonized. Yet politicians, scholars, and other media figures chronically inveigh against Western colonialism and the imperialist theft of Thai territory. Thai historians insist that the country adapted to the Western-dominated world order more successfully than other Southeast Asian kingdoms and celebrate their proud history of independence. But many Thai leaders view the West as a threat and portray Thailand as a victim. Clearly Thailand's relationship with the West is ambivalent. The Lost Territories explores this conundrum by examining two important and contrasting strands of Thai historiography: the well-known Royal-Nationalist ideology, which celebrates Thailand's long history of uninterrupted independence; and what the author terms "National Humiliation discourse," its mirror image. Shane Strate examines the origins and consequences of National Humiliation discourse, showing how the modern Thai state has used the idea of national humiliation to sponsor a form of anti-Western nationalism. Unlike triumphalist Royal-Nationalist narratives, National Humiliation history depicts Thailand as a victim of Western imperialist bullying. Focusing on key themes such as extraterritoriality, trade imbalances, and territorial loss, National Humiliation history maintains that the West impeded Thailand's development even while professing its support and cooperation. Although the state remains the hero in this narrative, it is a tragic heroism defined by suffering and foreign oppression. Through his insightful analysis of state and media sources, Strate demonstrates how Thai politicians have deployed National Humiliation imagery in support of ethnic chauvinism and military expansion. He shows how the discourse became the ideological foundation of Thailand's irredentist strategy, the state's anti-Catholic campaign, and its acceptance of pan-Asianism during World War II; and how the "state as victim" narrative has been used by politicians to redefine Thai identity and elevate the military into the role of national savior. The Lost Territories will be of particular interest to historians and political scientists for the light it sheds on many episodes of Thai foreign policy, including the contemporary dispute over Preah Vihear. The book's analysis of the manipulation of historical memory will interest academics exploring similar phenomena worldwide.

What Changed When Everything Changed

What Changed When Everything Changed PDF Author: Joseph Margulies
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300195206
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
DIV Beautifully written and carefully reasoned, this bold and provocative work upends the conventional wisdom about the American reaction to crisis. Margulies demonstrates that for key elements of the post-9/11 landscape—especially support for counterterror policies like torture and hostility to Islam—American identity is not only darker than it was before September 11, 2001, but substantially more repressive than it was immediately after the attacks. These repressive attitudes, Margulies shows us, have taken hold even as the terrorist threat has diminished significantly. Contrary to what is widely imagined, at the moment of greatest perceived threat, when the fear of another attack “hung over the country like a shroud,” favorable attitudes toward Muslims and Islam were at record highs, and the suggestion that America should torture was denounced in the public square. Only much later did it become socially acceptable to favor “enhanced interrogation” and exhibit clear anti-Muslim prejudice. Margulies accounts for this unexpected turn and explains what it means to the nation’s identity as it moves beyond 9/11. We express our values in the same language, but that language can hide profound differences and radical changes in what we actually believe. “National identity,” he writes, “is not fixed, it is made.” /div

Lost Kingdom

Lost Kingdom PDF Author: Serhii Plokhy
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465097391
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine -- only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history. Spanning over 500 years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin exploited existing forms of identity, warfare, and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. An authoritative and masterful account of Russian nationalism, Lost Kingdom chronicles the story behind Russia's belligerent empire-building quest.

Power and Progress

Power and Progress PDF Author: Paul T. McCartney
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807131145
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
In Power and Progress, Paul T. McCartney presents a provocative case study of the Spanish-American War, exposing newfound dimensions to the relationship between American nationalism and U.S. foreign policy. Two significant but distinct foreign-policy issues are at the center of McCartney's analysis: the declaration of war against Spain in 1898 and the annexation of the Philippine Islands as part of the war's peace treaty. According to McCartney, Americans were very explicitly and self-consciously expanding their nation's sense of mission in making these two foreign-policy decisions. They drew upon a cultural identity forged from racist, religious, and liberal-democratic characteristics to guide the United States into the uncharted waters of international prominence. What America did abroad they emphatically framed in terms of what they believed America to be. Foreign policy, McCartney argues, provided a concrete focus for this sense of mission on the world stage and played a marked role in shaping the contours and substance of American nationalism itself. Power and Progress provides the first intensive look at how the idea of American mission has influenced the conduct of U.S. foreign policy, lending fresh insight into a transformative moment in the development of both U.S. foreign policy and national identity. It contributes measurably to our understanding of the cultural sources of American foreign policy and thus serves as a partial corrective to studies that overemphasize economic motives.

Metaphor and National Identity

Metaphor and National Identity PDF Author: Orsolya Putz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027261725
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Due to the Treaty of Trianon – which was signed at the end of World War 1 in 1920 – Hungary lost two thirds of its former territory, as well as the inhabitants of these areas. The book aims to reveal why the treaty still plays a role in Hungarian national identity construction, by studying the alternative conceptualization of the treaty and its consequences. The cognitive linguistic research explores Hungarian politicians’ conceptual system about Trianon, with special interest on conceptual metaphors. It also analyzes the factors that may motivate the emergence of the conceptual system, as well as its synchronic diversity and diachronic changes. The monograph provides a niche insight into the conceptual basis of how contemporary citizens of Hungary interpret the treaty of Trianon and its consequences. The book will be of interest to cognitive and cultural linguists, cultural anthropologists, or any professionals working on national identity construction.

The Lost Canadians

The Lost Canadians PDF Author: Don Chapman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780994055408
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Tells the story of Don Chapman and his work on behalf of Canadians fighting for citizenship rights, equality and identity.

The English Nation Identified with the Lost House of Israel by Twenty-seven Identifications

The English Nation Identified with the Lost House of Israel by Twenty-seven Identifications PDF Author: Edward Hine
Publisher: Manchester : J. Heywood
ISBN:
Category : Anglo-Israelism
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description


The Lost Mother

The Lost Mother PDF Author: Joon Kim
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595441947
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The Lost Mother is the memoir of Iltang, an acclaimed Korean/Japan painter whowas born in 1922. His Korean mother, Ilyeopwas a well-known feminist poetwho, after his birth, renounced the worldto enter into Buddhist monastic life. Iltang's father was the scion of an aristocratic Japanese family. Their relationship was romantic but ultimatelydoomed. In a life marked by war and disruption; Iltang finally attained both theartistic success he craved, and the spiritualenlightenment he sought in later life. The longing for his "real"mother never left him, however, and it provided him the psychological impetus to succeed in both the worldly andspiritual realms. Iltang's dramatic life story ismade even more vibrant by the chaotic historical context intowhich he was born. It is an interesting portrayal of a unique time and place and an inspiring look at one man's incredible ability to overcome adversity.

Blood Sacrifice and the Nation

Blood Sacrifice and the Nation PDF Author: Carolyn Marvin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521626095
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This compelling book argues that American patriotism is a civil religion of blood sacrifice, which periodically kills its children to keep the group together. The flag is the sacred object of this religion; its sacrificial imperative is a secret which the group keeps from itself to survive. Expanding Durkheim's theory of the totem taboo as the organizing principle of enduring groups, Carolyn Marvin uncovers the system of sacrifice and regeneration which constitutes American nationalism, shows why historical instances of these rituals succeed or fail in unifying the group, and explains how mass media are essential to the process. American culture is depicted as ritually structured by a fertile center and sacrificial borders of death. Violence plays a key part in its identity. In essence, nationalism is neither quaint historical residue nor atavistic extremism, but a living tradition which defines American life.