Randall Fuller
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313925
- eISBN:
- 9780199787753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313925.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The central question engaged in this book is the following: why does Emerson's cultural legacy continue to influence writers so forcefully? This study examines the way influential 20th-century ...
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The central question engaged in this book is the following: why does Emerson's cultural legacy continue to influence writers so forcefully? This study examines the way influential 20th-century critics have understood and deployed Emerson as part of their own larger projects aimed at reconceiving America. It examines previously unpublished material and original research on Van Wyck Brooks, Perry Miller, F. O. Matthiessen, and Sacvan Bercovitch along with other supporting thinkers. Emerging from this research is an in-depth account of Emerson's cultural construction as well as an institutional history of American literary studies in the 20th century. This book is also a fine-grained study of how the relationship between a scholar's individual perspective and prevailing cultural conditions merge together to impel critics to redirect the course of a present moment — often experienced as disappointing and unfulfilled — toward a desired future. When an engaged but theoretical mind meets with an impassive history, the response that follows, for some of our most imaginative and brilliant critics, has led, often and suggestively, to a turn toward Emerson.Less
The central question engaged in this book is the following: why does Emerson's cultural legacy continue to influence writers so forcefully? This study examines the way influential 20th-century critics have understood and deployed Emerson as part of their own larger projects aimed at reconceiving America. It examines previously unpublished material and original research on Van Wyck Brooks, Perry Miller, F. O. Matthiessen, and Sacvan Bercovitch along with other supporting thinkers. Emerging from this research is an in-depth account of Emerson's cultural construction as well as an institutional history of American literary studies in the 20th century. This book is also a fine-grained study of how the relationship between a scholar's individual perspective and prevailing cultural conditions merge together to impel critics to redirect the course of a present moment — often experienced as disappointing and unfulfilled — toward a desired future. When an engaged but theoretical mind meets with an impassive history, the response that follows, for some of our most imaginative and brilliant critics, has led, often and suggestively, to a turn toward Emerson.
Walter D. Mignolo
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156095
- eISBN:
- 9781400845064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156095.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to ...
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This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to keep in mind the differences between the original projects of South Asian Subaltern Studies Group formulated in terms of querying the “historic failure of the nation to come to its own” and of making clear that, “it is the study of this failure which constitutes the central problematic of the historiography of colonial India.” Although one can say that it is this problematic that engages Mallon's and the Latin American Group's adaptation, in both cases, there is a lack of attention to the fact that Latin America is not a country—like postpartition India—and that the many countries of Latin America obtained their independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century and not in 1947.Less
This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to keep in mind the differences between the original projects of South Asian Subaltern Studies Group formulated in terms of querying the “historic failure of the nation to come to its own” and of making clear that, “it is the study of this failure which constitutes the central problematic of the historiography of colonial India.” Although one can say that it is this problematic that engages Mallon's and the Latin American Group's adaptation, in both cases, there is a lack of attention to the fact that Latin America is not a country—like postpartition India—and that the many countries of Latin America obtained their independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century and not in 1947.
Mark Rifkin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195387179
- eISBN:
- 9780199866786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387179.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
More than tracking the cultural logic of "manifest destiny," the introduction develops an analysis of the friction between U.S. legal geography and the presence of countervailing socio-spatial ...
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More than tracking the cultural logic of "manifest destiny," the introduction develops an analysis of the friction between U.S. legal geography and the presence of countervailing socio-spatial formations which persist even in the wake of occupation. Attending to the insertion of Native American and Mexican populations into the terms of U.S. jurisdiction runs against the grain of the current transnational turn in American Studies, which often highlights movement across national borders at the expense of discussion of the (re)production of domestic space and its effects on prior forms of governance and land tenure. Employing the concept of self-determination and principles from subaltern studies, it lays out an interpretive methodology that addresses the textual production of internalized groups as a vehicle of collective self-representation while examining the ways such texts are marked by the imperial pressures of U.S. policy as well as class and regional tensions.Less
More than tracking the cultural logic of "manifest destiny," the introduction develops an analysis of the friction between U.S. legal geography and the presence of countervailing socio-spatial formations which persist even in the wake of occupation. Attending to the insertion of Native American and Mexican populations into the terms of U.S. jurisdiction runs against the grain of the current transnational turn in American Studies, which often highlights movement across national borders at the expense of discussion of the (re)production of domestic space and its effects on prior forms of governance and land tenure. Employing the concept of self-determination and principles from subaltern studies, it lays out an interpretive methodology that addresses the textual production of internalized groups as a vehicle of collective self-representation while examining the ways such texts are marked by the imperial pressures of U.S. policy as well as class and regional tensions.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691136134
- eISBN:
- 9781400836512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691136134.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This concluding chapter argues that global remapping of American literature involves drawing attention to the contingent and historically variable nature of narratives about the relation of America ...
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This concluding chapter argues that global remapping of American literature involves drawing attention to the contingent and historically variable nature of narratives about the relation of America to the rest of the world. It contends that to reconceive American literary studies in global terms is not to reject the significance of spatial location or corporeal embodiment but to make place contingent. It also challenges the idea that a commitment to liberal democracy should be a prerequisite of American studies scholarship. Rather than associating globalization merely with a triumph of flattened market forces and a wholesale rejection of aesthetic values, the chapter suggests that it would be more valuable to consider ways in which social forces of all kinds can represent illuminating lacunae within literary texts, of the kind that have always been accessible to careful critical scrutiny.Less
This concluding chapter argues that global remapping of American literature involves drawing attention to the contingent and historically variable nature of narratives about the relation of America to the rest of the world. It contends that to reconceive American literary studies in global terms is not to reject the significance of spatial location or corporeal embodiment but to make place contingent. It also challenges the idea that a commitment to liberal democracy should be a prerequisite of American studies scholarship. Rather than associating globalization merely with a triumph of flattened market forces and a wholesale rejection of aesthetic values, the chapter suggests that it would be more valuable to consider ways in which social forces of all kinds can represent illuminating lacunae within literary texts, of the kind that have always been accessible to careful critical scrutiny.
Jerry A. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226069296
- eISBN:
- 9780226069463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226069463.003.0008
- Subject:
- Education, Higher and Further Education
American studies was one of the first academic fields to embrace the principle of interdisciplinarity. Chapter 8 reviews the history of the field since the late 1940s, summarizes its main ...
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American studies was one of the first academic fields to embrace the principle of interdisciplinarity. Chapter 8 reviews the history of the field since the late 1940s, summarizes its main intellectual currents and evolution. In organizational terms, American studies has been successful in terms of its endurance as a field, including the establishment of more than 30 journals and American studies programs in over 50 countries. On the other hand, American studies by no means unified the study of American society and culture. Instead, it helped to create the climate for the creation of additional interdisciplinary fields of inquiry, including African-American studies and women’s studies, thus contributing to the proliferation of new academic units. American studies programs rarely take the form of departments that control their own hiring decisions, and thus recipients of doctoral degrees in American studies must seek employment in neighboring departments such as English, history, film studies and other specialized studies programs.Less
American studies was one of the first academic fields to embrace the principle of interdisciplinarity. Chapter 8 reviews the history of the field since the late 1940s, summarizes its main intellectual currents and evolution. In organizational terms, American studies has been successful in terms of its endurance as a field, including the establishment of more than 30 journals and American studies programs in over 50 countries. On the other hand, American studies by no means unified the study of American society and culture. Instead, it helped to create the climate for the creation of additional interdisciplinary fields of inquiry, including African-American studies and women’s studies, thus contributing to the proliferation of new academic units. American studies programs rarely take the form of departments that control their own hiring decisions, and thus recipients of doctoral degrees in American studies must seek employment in neighboring departments such as English, history, film studies and other specialized studies programs.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above ...
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This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.Less
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.
Matthew M. Briones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691129488
- eISBN:
- 9781400842216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691129488.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explores the lengthy, honest, and mutually respectful nature of the correspondence between Kikuchi and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, especially during the period of 1942 to 1945, when Kikuchi ...
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This chapter explores the lengthy, honest, and mutually respectful nature of the correspondence between Kikuchi and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, especially during the period of 1942 to 1945, when Kikuchi officially kept his personal diary for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), which Thomas led. Thomas had initially asked Kikuchi to keep a diary in the hope that she would gain greater insight into the “normal” workings of camp life and the readjustment processes of an individual resettler after camp. The chapter considers the significance of understanding how African Americans intersected with and viewed their Asian neighbors and coworkers. The chain reaction of internment and postwar resettlement filled cities with intermixing and competing Blacks and Japanese (and other Asians), and Kikuchi provided a running commentary.Less
This chapter explores the lengthy, honest, and mutually respectful nature of the correspondence between Kikuchi and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, especially during the period of 1942 to 1945, when Kikuchi officially kept his personal diary for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), which Thomas led. Thomas had initially asked Kikuchi to keep a diary in the hope that she would gain greater insight into the “normal” workings of camp life and the readjustment processes of an individual resettler after camp. The chapter considers the significance of understanding how African Americans intersected with and viewed their Asian neighbors and coworkers. The chain reaction of internment and postwar resettlement filled cities with intermixing and competing Blacks and Japanese (and other Asians), and Kikuchi provided a running commentary.
John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151458
- eISBN:
- 9781400840298
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151458.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the premier social science survey program devoted to voting and elections. Conducted during the presidential election years and midterm Congressional ...
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The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the premier social science survey program devoted to voting and elections. Conducted during the presidential election years and midterm Congressional elections, the survey is based on interviews with voters and delves into why they make certain choices. This book brings together a group of leading social scientists that developed and tested new measures that might be added to the ANES, with the ultimate goal of extending scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of electoral outcomes. The chapters illuminate some of the most important questions and results from the ANES 2006 pilot study. They cover such varied topics as self-monitoring in the expression of political attitudes, personal values and political orientations, alternate measures of political trust, perceptions of similarity and disagreement in partisan groups, measuring ambivalence about government, gender preferences in politics, and the political issues of abortion, crime, and taxes. Testing new ideas in the study of politics and the political psychology of voting choices and turnout, this book will be a resource for all students and scholars working to understand the American electorate.Less
The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the premier social science survey program devoted to voting and elections. Conducted during the presidential election years and midterm Congressional elections, the survey is based on interviews with voters and delves into why they make certain choices. This book brings together a group of leading social scientists that developed and tested new measures that might be added to the ANES, with the ultimate goal of extending scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of electoral outcomes. The chapters illuminate some of the most important questions and results from the ANES 2006 pilot study. They cover such varied topics as self-monitoring in the expression of political attitudes, personal values and political orientations, alternate measures of political trust, perceptions of similarity and disagreement in partisan groups, measuring ambivalence about government, gender preferences in politics, and the political issues of abortion, crime, and taxes. Testing new ideas in the study of politics and the political psychology of voting choices and turnout, this book will be a resource for all students and scholars working to understand the American electorate.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640492
- eISBN:
- 9780748652129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640492.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the emergence of a new kind of journal publishing related to American studies. It charts the evolution of American studies in order to trace the trajectory of journal publishing ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of a new kind of journal publishing related to American studies. It charts the evolution of American studies in order to trace the trajectory of journal publishing on the subject from one grounded initially on certain assumptions about territorial enclosure towards a situation wherein the boundaries of the field have become much more amorphous. The chapter also describes the changing historical conditions within which different American studies journals have operated.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of a new kind of journal publishing related to American studies. It charts the evolution of American studies in order to trace the trajectory of journal publishing on the subject from one grounded initially on certain assumptions about territorial enclosure towards a situation wherein the boundaries of the field have become much more amorphous. The chapter also describes the changing historical conditions within which different American studies journals have operated.
John M. Giggie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195304039
- eISBN:
- 9780199866885
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304039.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, History of Religion
This book explores religious transformation in the lives of ex-slaves and their descendants living in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta between the end of Reconstruction and the start of the Great ...
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This book explores religious transformation in the lives of ex-slaves and their descendants living in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta between the end of Reconstruction and the start of the Great Migration. It argues that Delta blacks, who were overwhelmingly rural sharecroppers and tenant farmers, developed a rich and complex sacred culture during this era. They forged a new religious culture by integrating their spiritual life with many of the defining features of the post‐Reconstruction South, including the rise of segregation and racial violence, the emergence of new forms of technology like train travel, the growth of black fraternal orders, and the rapid expansion of the consumer market. Experimenting with new symbols of freedom and racial respectability, forms of organizational culture, regional networks of communication, and popular notions of commodification and consumption enabled them to survive, make progress, and at times resist white supremacy. The book then evaluates the social consequences of these changes and shows in particular how the Holiness‐Pentecostal developed in large part as a rejection of them. It ends by probing how this new religious world influenced the Great Migration and black spiritual life in the 1920s and 1930s.Less
This book explores religious transformation in the lives of ex-slaves and their descendants living in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta between the end of Reconstruction and the start of the Great Migration. It argues that Delta blacks, who were overwhelmingly rural sharecroppers and tenant farmers, developed a rich and complex sacred culture during this era. They forged a new religious culture by integrating their spiritual life with many of the defining features of the post‐Reconstruction South, including the rise of segregation and racial violence, the emergence of new forms of technology like train travel, the growth of black fraternal orders, and the rapid expansion of the consumer market. Experimenting with new symbols of freedom and racial respectability, forms of organizational culture, regional networks of communication, and popular notions of commodification and consumption enabled them to survive, make progress, and at times resist white supremacy. The book then evaluates the social consequences of these changes and shows in particular how the Holiness‐Pentecostal developed in large part as a rejection of them. It ends by probing how this new religious world influenced the Great Migration and black spiritual life in the 1920s and 1930s.
Henry Goldschmidt and Elizabeth McAlister (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195149180
- eISBN:
- 9780199835386
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195149181.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The pioneering essays collected in this volume bring critical new perspectives to the interdisciplinary study of racial, national, and religious identities. The authors draw on original research in ...
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The pioneering essays collected in this volume bring critical new perspectives to the interdisciplinary study of racial, national, and religious identities. The authors draw on original research in cultural anthropology, history, religious studies, American studies, and other fields, and draw inspiration from the loosely defined fields of cultural studies and post-structuralist critical theory. Their essays demonstrate that one cannot study categories of identity formation like race, nation, and religion in isolation, but must instead examine the ways each intersects with—and ultimately helps construct—the others. This innovative perspective sheds new light on the role of religion in defining the identities of diverse communities throughout the Americas. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the U. S. declaration of war on “barbarians” and “evil-doers,” Americans and others are struggling to understand the role of religion in global politics. Yet scholars and others still tend to believe that religious identities thrive only in “non-Western” societies. By exploring the ties between race, nation, and religion in the Americas, this volume forces us to reevaluate the reductive opposition between secular modernity and its religious others.Less
The pioneering essays collected in this volume bring critical new perspectives to the interdisciplinary study of racial, national, and religious identities. The authors draw on original research in cultural anthropology, history, religious studies, American studies, and other fields, and draw inspiration from the loosely defined fields of cultural studies and post-structuralist critical theory. Their essays demonstrate that one cannot study categories of identity formation like race, nation, and religion in isolation, but must instead examine the ways each intersects with—and ultimately helps construct—the others. This innovative perspective sheds new light on the role of religion in defining the identities of diverse communities throughout the Americas. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the U. S. declaration of war on “barbarians” and “evil-doers,” Americans and others are struggling to understand the role of religion in global politics. Yet scholars and others still tend to believe that religious identities thrive only in “non-Western” societies. By exploring the ties between race, nation, and religion in the Americas, this volume forces us to reevaluate the reductive opposition between secular modernity and its religious others.
Kerwin Lee IZlein
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520204638
- eISBN:
- 9780520924185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520204638.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on literary critics' thoughts about the American frontier narrative. Scholars such as Henry Nash and Perry Miller declared the nation's relation with nature as the key to its ...
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This chapter focuses on literary critics' thoughts about the American frontier narrative. Scholars such as Henry Nash and Perry Miller declared the nation's relation with nature as the key to its sense of selfhood. Many others believed that the belief in the mythic frontier encouraged political oppression at home and overseas, and also criticized the working language of American studies, proposing to replace the narrative traditions saturated with emotion and poesy with rational analysis.Less
This chapter focuses on literary critics' thoughts about the American frontier narrative. Scholars such as Henry Nash and Perry Miller declared the nation's relation with nature as the key to its sense of selfhood. Many others believed that the belief in the mythic frontier encouraged political oppression at home and overseas, and also criticized the working language of American studies, proposing to replace the narrative traditions saturated with emotion and poesy with rational analysis.
Jan E. Leighley and Jonathan Nagler
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159348
- eISBN:
- 9781400848621
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159348.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter considers how the policy positions offered by candidates influence voter turnout. It expects that larger differences in the policy positions of candidates are associated with a higher ...
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This chapter considers how the policy positions offered by candidates influence voter turnout. It expects that larger differences in the policy positions of candidates are associated with a higher probability of voting. Using the American National Election Studies data, it examines the impact of individuals' perceptions of candidates' policy positions—how they compare to each other, and how they compare to the individuals' preferences—on individuals' decisions to vote. It finds that individuals are more likely to vote when they perceive a greater policy difference between the candidates. The poorest Americans have also become more indifferent between candidates in recent elections—that is, they see fewer differences between candidates now when compared to wealthier Americans.Less
This chapter considers how the policy positions offered by candidates influence voter turnout. It expects that larger differences in the policy positions of candidates are associated with a higher probability of voting. Using the American National Election Studies data, it examines the impact of individuals' perceptions of candidates' policy positions—how they compare to each other, and how they compare to the individuals' preferences—on individuals' decisions to vote. It finds that individuals are more likely to vote when they perceive a greater policy difference between the candidates. The poorest Americans have also become more indifferent between candidates in recent elections—that is, they see fewer differences between candidates now when compared to wealthier Americans.
Barbara Brinson Curiel, David Kazanjian, Katherine Kinney, Steven Mailloux, Jay Mechling, John Carlos Rowe, George Sánchez, Shelley Streeby, and Henry Yu
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520224384
- eISBN:
- 9780520925267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520224384.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This introductory chapter discusses the term post-nationalist and the concept of a post-nationalist approach. It first studies the Turner thesis, which was been replaced as a historical paradigm by ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the term post-nationalist and the concept of a post-nationalist approach. It first studies the Turner thesis, which was been replaced as a historical paradigm by new western historians such as Richard White and Patricia Limerick. The concepts of “American exceptionalism”, “cosmopolitanism”, and “critical internationalism” are introduced. The chapter looks at the crucial subjects for post-nationalist American Studies, including the intersections among formations of mass consumption, culture, and race. The chapter also discusses the adoption of multiculturalism as a central organizing principle in studying culture in the United States.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the term post-nationalist and the concept of a post-nationalist approach. It first studies the Turner thesis, which was been replaced as a historical paradigm by new western historians such as Richard White and Patricia Limerick. The concepts of “American exceptionalism”, “cosmopolitanism”, and “critical internationalism” are introduced. The chapter looks at the crucial subjects for post-nationalist American Studies, including the intersections among formations of mass consumption, culture, and race. The chapter also discusses the adoption of multiculturalism as a central organizing principle in studying culture in the United States.
John Carlos Rowe
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520224384
- eISBN:
- 9780520925267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520224384.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses the new American Studies. It introduces the “border studies” of the interactions and intersections of the different cultures of the United States and takes note of the ...
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This chapter discusses the new American Studies. It introduces the “border studies” of the interactions and intersections of the different cultures of the United States and takes note of the criticisms of “American Exceptionalism”. It looks at the fundamental reconsiderations of what constitutes “American Studies” as a field—or fields—of study. It discusses the anti-theoretical bias in American Studies and identifies the “post-nationalist” challenges to the study of the Americas. The chapter also covers the problems that surround the new American Studies and introduces the American Studies Association.Less
This chapter discusses the new American Studies. It introduces the “border studies” of the interactions and intersections of the different cultures of the United States and takes note of the criticisms of “American Exceptionalism”. It looks at the fundamental reconsiderations of what constitutes “American Studies” as a field—or fields—of study. It discusses the anti-theoretical bias in American Studies and identifies the “post-nationalist” challenges to the study of the Americas. The chapter also covers the problems that surround the new American Studies and introduces the American Studies Association.
Edlie L. Wong
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479868001
- eISBN:
- 9781479899043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479868001.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion remains one of the most lasting racial formations from Reconstruction America. Black citizenship and suffrage neither mitigated ...
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The dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion remains one of the most lasting racial formations from Reconstruction America. Black citizenship and suffrage neither mitigated racial inequality nor racially subordinated American identities, especially after Plessy v. Ferguson legalized racial segregation. The extension of nominal citizenship to black freedmen did not break the constitutive link between whiteness and citizenship, as the racial exclusion of Chinese (and later all so-called Asiatic races) from immigration and naturalization helped establish the whiteness or Americanization of new European immigrants. By the end of the century, the dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion had become an oft-referenced rhetorical figure in popular and legal discourses, structuring persuasive arguments both for and against Chinese political rights and black racial inequality. The introduction explores the cultural genealogies of this dialectical configuration linking together immigration and citizenship struggles in the long shadow of slavery and abolition.Less
The dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion remains one of the most lasting racial formations from Reconstruction America. Black citizenship and suffrage neither mitigated racial inequality nor racially subordinated American identities, especially after Plessy v. Ferguson legalized racial segregation. The extension of nominal citizenship to black freedmen did not break the constitutive link between whiteness and citizenship, as the racial exclusion of Chinese (and later all so-called Asiatic races) from immigration and naturalization helped establish the whiteness or Americanization of new European immigrants. By the end of the century, the dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion had become an oft-referenced rhetorical figure in popular and legal discourses, structuring persuasive arguments both for and against Chinese political rights and black racial inequality. The introduction explores the cultural genealogies of this dialectical configuration linking together immigration and citizenship struggles in the long shadow of slavery and abolition.
Brian T. Edwards and Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226185064
- eISBN:
- 9780226185088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226185088.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The roots of both American studies and the understanding of the twentieth century as the “American Century” can be found earlier in the twentieth century. The myth of an American Century and the ...
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The roots of both American studies and the understanding of the twentieth century as the “American Century” can be found earlier in the twentieth century. The myth of an American Century and the mythology of American exceptionalism sustained each other through subsequent decades, even though American studies scholars grappled with them both repeatedly, and attempted to free themselves from these narratives by identifying and critiquing their limitations and occlusions. The exceptionalist thesis has made possible many sophisticated readings of American history, literature, and society. This chapter attempts to locate the roots of the multilateralism that may already exist in literature and Americanist scholarship, conscious of the contingency of “America” within global circulation. The combination of American studies–American exceptionalism–American Century has served until now as an enabling interpretive matrix that has been able to contain a variety of contradictions, generated both internally by academic inquiry and externally by changing historical conditions.Less
The roots of both American studies and the understanding of the twentieth century as the “American Century” can be found earlier in the twentieth century. The myth of an American Century and the mythology of American exceptionalism sustained each other through subsequent decades, even though American studies scholars grappled with them both repeatedly, and attempted to free themselves from these narratives by identifying and critiquing their limitations and occlusions. The exceptionalist thesis has made possible many sophisticated readings of American history, literature, and society. This chapter attempts to locate the roots of the multilateralism that may already exist in literature and Americanist scholarship, conscious of the contingency of “America” within global circulation. The combination of American studies–American exceptionalism–American Century has served until now as an enabling interpretive matrix that has been able to contain a variety of contradictions, generated both internally by academic inquiry and externally by changing historical conditions.
George J. Sánchez
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520224384
- eISBN:
- 9780520925267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520224384.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter provides a critical examination of the relationship between the newly restored field of American Studies and the various fields of Ethnic Studies. It investigates a particular ...
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This chapter provides a critical examination of the relationship between the newly restored field of American Studies and the various fields of Ethnic Studies. It investigates a particular ideological focus of more recent work in American Studies, which claims to be “post-ethnic” in analysis and motivation. It is then argued that present discussions on the place of the two fields of Ethnic Studies and American Studies in academia and on certain U.S. campuses reflect the deep conflict toward unity and difference.Less
This chapter provides a critical examination of the relationship between the newly restored field of American Studies and the various fields of Ethnic Studies. It investigates a particular ideological focus of more recent work in American Studies, which claims to be “post-ethnic” in analysis and motivation. It is then argued that present discussions on the place of the two fields of Ethnic Studies and American Studies in academia and on certain U.S. campuses reflect the deep conflict toward unity and difference.
John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151458
- eISBN:
- 9781400840298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151458.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter is an overview of the American National Election Studies (ANES) as well as its functions and overall significance for study. It indicates how and why the ANES achieved its status as the ...
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This chapter is an overview of the American National Election Studies (ANES) as well as its functions and overall significance for study. It indicates how and why the ANES achieved its status as the gold standard among public opinion surveys and how this volume seeks to extend that standard. First used in 1948, the ANES has been in the field in every presidential election and nearly every congressional election since. It is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as one of its three “big social science” projects. Moreover, the ANES's sixty years of measuring public opinion and voting behavior has made possible the compilation of time-series analyses that are now starting to show real insights into, and to change how we view, campaigns and elections. To conclude, the chapter provides some insights into the future of survey research.Less
This chapter is an overview of the American National Election Studies (ANES) as well as its functions and overall significance for study. It indicates how and why the ANES achieved its status as the gold standard among public opinion surveys and how this volume seeks to extend that standard. First used in 1948, the ANES has been in the field in every presidential election and nearly every congressional election since. It is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as one of its three “big social science” projects. Moreover, the ANES's sixty years of measuring public opinion and voting behavior has made possible the compilation of time-series analyses that are now starting to show real insights into, and to change how we view, campaigns and elections. To conclude, the chapter provides some insights into the future of survey research.
Melissa N. Stein
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816673025
- eISBN:
- 9781452952437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816673025.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Chapter two describes how racial scientists became invested in defining manhood and to whom it applied. During the Civil War, scientists conducted anthropometric studies of union troops, measuring ...
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Chapter two describes how racial scientists became invested in defining manhood and to whom it applied. During the Civil War, scientists conducted anthropometric studies of union troops, measuring manhood along racial lines. After, they turned their attention from black men's fitness for military service to their fitness for citizenship, a political category attached to men alone.Less
Chapter two describes how racial scientists became invested in defining manhood and to whom it applied. During the Civil War, scientists conducted anthropometric studies of union troops, measuring manhood along racial lines. After, they turned their attention from black men's fitness for military service to their fitness for citizenship, a political category attached to men alone.
