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Americanism: New Perspectives on the History of an Ideal

Online ISBN:
9781469602332
Print ISBN:
9780807830109
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
Book

Americanism: New Perspectives on the History of an Ideal

Michael Kazin (ed.),
Michael Kazin
(ed.)
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Joseph A. McCartin (ed.)
Joseph A. McCartin
(ed.)
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Published:
3 April 2006
Online ISBN:
9781469602332
Print ISBN:
9780807830109
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

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 book 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. This book is divided into two sections. The section 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 many of the chapters call for a revival of the ideals of Americanism in a new progressive politics that can bring together an increasingly polarized and fragmented citizenry.

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