R. R. Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161280
- eISBN:
- 9781400850228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161280.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian ...
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This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian birth, and their Conspiracy of Equals of 1796. The Conspiracy of Equals has always been looked back on with respectful interest by partisans of the modern Left, as the first manifestation of the revolutionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How far the Conspiracy was “communistic” remains uncertain. But even the inner leadership had diverse aims, and the whole movement was so secret and so short-lived that the secondary organizers, not to mention the ordinary followers, never knew who the leaders were or what their purposes might be.Less
This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian birth, and their Conspiracy of Equals of 1796. The Conspiracy of Equals has always been looked back on with respectful interest by partisans of the modern Left, as the first manifestation of the revolutionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How far the Conspiracy was “communistic” remains uncertain. But even the inner leadership had diverse aims, and the whole movement was so secret and so short-lived that the secondary organizers, not to mention the ordinary followers, never knew who the leaders were or what their purposes might be.
Thomas J. Laub
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199539321
- eISBN:
- 9780191715808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199539321.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Military History, European Modern History
During the final years of the Occupation, Hitler championed increasingly radical measures such as the Commando Order against real and imagined enemies of the Nazi regime. Alienated by the Führer's ...
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During the final years of the Occupation, Hitler championed increasingly radical measures such as the Commando Order against real and imagined enemies of the Nazi regime. Alienated by the Führer's criminal policies, Carl‐Heinrich von Stülpnagel and leading figures within the military administration in Paris conspired with Claus von Stauffenberg and prepared to overthrow the Nazi regime. On the evening of 20 July 1944, Carl‐Heinrich von Stülpnagel ordered subordinates to arrest the SS and tried to enlist colleagues from the regular field army in the plot. Once news of Hitler's survival reached Paris, the conspirators orchestrated an elaborate cover‐up in conjunction with Otto Abetz and Carl Oberg. The German embassy in Paris, SS, and military administration embraced a common agenda of survival, accommodated one another, and concealed the scope of the anti‐Nazi conspiracy in Paris. Veterans of the 20 July conspiracy helped General Dietrich von Choltitz, the last military commander in France, disobey a direct order from Hitler that called for the complete destruction of Paris.Less
During the final years of the Occupation, Hitler championed increasingly radical measures such as the Commando Order against real and imagined enemies of the Nazi regime. Alienated by the Führer's criminal policies, Carl‐Heinrich von Stülpnagel and leading figures within the military administration in Paris conspired with Claus von Stauffenberg and prepared to overthrow the Nazi regime. On the evening of 20 July 1944, Carl‐Heinrich von Stülpnagel ordered subordinates to arrest the SS and tried to enlist colleagues from the regular field army in the plot. Once news of Hitler's survival reached Paris, the conspirators orchestrated an elaborate cover‐up in conjunction with Otto Abetz and Carl Oberg. The German embassy in Paris, SS, and military administration embraced a common agenda of survival, accommodated one another, and concealed the scope of the anti‐Nazi conspiracy in Paris. Veterans of the 20 July conspiracy helped General Dietrich von Choltitz, the last military commander in France, disobey a direct order from Hitler that called for the complete destruction of Paris.
Joseph Oldham
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781784994150
- eISBN:
- 9781526128379
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784994150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Paranoid Visions provides an extensive historical account of the spy and conspiracy genres in British television drama, tracing a lineage from 1960s Cold War series, through 1980s paranoid conspiracy ...
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Paranoid Visions provides an extensive historical account of the spy and conspiracy genres in British television drama, tracing a lineage from 1960s Cold War series, through 1980s paranoid conspiracy dramas, to contemporary ‘war on terror’ thrillers. It argues that the on-screen depictions of intelligence services can interpreted as metaphors for the production cultures that created the programmes, meditating on the roles and responsibilities of public institutions whose trade is information and ideas. It incorporates close analyses of classic series including Callan, The Sandbaggers, Edge of Darkness, A Very British Coup, Spooks and the BBC adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, supported by new archival research. The account is positioned against aesthetic, institutional and technological shifts in British television drama as it transitioned from its traditional public service principles to the more commercial priorities of the multi-channel era, in particular examining the growth of long-form serial narratives in ‘quality’ television. It is also mapped closely to the real history of British intelligence through consideration of how such programmes responded to key scandals and exposés and counterblast campaigns of transparency and openness. Finally, it also situates these dramas against key issues in the history of British culture and national identity, including discourses of class politics, Cold War culture, the heritage industry, terrorism past and present, the decline of the social-democratic consensus, the growth of personal computing and the ascendance of the free market economy.Less
Paranoid Visions provides an extensive historical account of the spy and conspiracy genres in British television drama, tracing a lineage from 1960s Cold War series, through 1980s paranoid conspiracy dramas, to contemporary ‘war on terror’ thrillers. It argues that the on-screen depictions of intelligence services can interpreted as metaphors for the production cultures that created the programmes, meditating on the roles and responsibilities of public institutions whose trade is information and ideas. It incorporates close analyses of classic series including Callan, The Sandbaggers, Edge of Darkness, A Very British Coup, Spooks and the BBC adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, supported by new archival research. The account is positioned against aesthetic, institutional and technological shifts in British television drama as it transitioned from its traditional public service principles to the more commercial priorities of the multi-channel era, in particular examining the growth of long-form serial narratives in ‘quality’ television. It is also mapped closely to the real history of British intelligence through consideration of how such programmes responded to key scandals and exposés and counterblast campaigns of transparency and openness. Finally, it also situates these dramas against key issues in the history of British culture and national identity, including discourses of class politics, Cold War culture, the heritage industry, terrorism past and present, the decline of the social-democratic consensus, the growth of personal computing and the ascendance of the free market economy.
June Melby Benowitz
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061221
- eISBN:
- 9780813051437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061221.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter 2 examines three health issues that drew the attention of rightist women: fluoridation of public water systems, mental health programs, and polio vaccinations. In regard to both fluoridation ...
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Chapter 2 examines three health issues that drew the attention of rightist women: fluoridation of public water systems, mental health programs, and polio vaccinations. In regard to both fluoridation and polio vaccination, rightist women feared that they were detrimental to Americans’ health, especially that of the baby boom generation. The women protested government involvement in mental health programs. Many women on the right believed that, as a result of their activism against some government programs, they were likely to be targeted as “deviant.” They protested the administering of mental health examinations in public schools, fearing that such tests were not only intrusive, enabling government to learn more about them and their families than they wished to disclose, but also that the tests could actually cause children to develop mental problems. Some on the far right believed that the government, communists, Jews, and the scientific elite were conspiring to gain control of the nation via various health programs.Less
Chapter 2 examines three health issues that drew the attention of rightist women: fluoridation of public water systems, mental health programs, and polio vaccinations. In regard to both fluoridation and polio vaccination, rightist women feared that they were detrimental to Americans’ health, especially that of the baby boom generation. The women protested government involvement in mental health programs. Many women on the right believed that, as a result of their activism against some government programs, they were likely to be targeted as “deviant.” They protested the administering of mental health examinations in public schools, fearing that such tests were not only intrusive, enabling government to learn more about them and their families than they wished to disclose, but also that the tests could actually cause children to develop mental problems. Some on the far right believed that the government, communists, Jews, and the scientific elite were conspiring to gain control of the nation via various health programs.
Tim Aistrope
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099199
- eISBN:
- 9781526109729
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099199.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Conspiracy theory and American foreign policy examines the relationship between secrecy, power and interpretation around international political controversy, where foreign policy orthodoxy comes up ...
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Conspiracy theory and American foreign policy examines the relationship between secrecy, power and interpretation around international political controversy, where foreign policy orthodoxy comes up hard against alternative interpretations. It does so in the context of American foreign policy during the War on Terror, a conflict that was quintessentially covert and conspiratorial. This book adds a new dimension to the debate by examining what I coin the ‘Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative’: the view that Arab-Muslim resentment towards America was motivated to some degree by a paranoid perception of American power in the Middle East. Immediately after 9/11, prominent commentators pointed to an Arab-Muslim culture of blame and a related tendency towards conspiracy theories about America’s regional influence as an important cultural driver of anti-Americanism. This narrative subsequently made its way into numerous US Government policy documents and initiatives advancing a War of Ideas strategy aimed at winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of Arab-Muslims. The book provides a novel reading of the processes through which legitimacy and illegitimacy is produced in foreign policy discourses. It will also appeal to a wider cross-disciplinary audience interested in the burgeoning issues of conspiracy, paranoia, and popular knowledge, including their relationship to and consequences for contemporary politics.Less
Conspiracy theory and American foreign policy examines the relationship between secrecy, power and interpretation around international political controversy, where foreign policy orthodoxy comes up hard against alternative interpretations. It does so in the context of American foreign policy during the War on Terror, a conflict that was quintessentially covert and conspiratorial. This book adds a new dimension to the debate by examining what I coin the ‘Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative’: the view that Arab-Muslim resentment towards America was motivated to some degree by a paranoid perception of American power in the Middle East. Immediately after 9/11, prominent commentators pointed to an Arab-Muslim culture of blame and a related tendency towards conspiracy theories about America’s regional influence as an important cultural driver of anti-Americanism. This narrative subsequently made its way into numerous US Government policy documents and initiatives advancing a War of Ideas strategy aimed at winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of Arab-Muslims. The book provides a novel reading of the processes through which legitimacy and illegitimacy is produced in foreign policy discourses. It will also appeal to a wider cross-disciplinary audience interested in the burgeoning issues of conspiracy, paranoia, and popular knowledge, including their relationship to and consequences for contemporary politics.
B. R. Nanda
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195633634
- eISBN:
- 9780199081332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195633634.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
According to the eighteen accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, who included some of the founding fathers of the Communist Party of India, Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaigns were meant to ...
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According to the eighteen accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, who included some of the founding fathers of the Communist Party of India, Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaigns were meant to sabotage revolutionary movements. They also accuse Gandhi of working for a compromise with British imperialism in favour of the Indian bourgeoisie. This accusation influenced the thinking of Indian Communists for twenty-five years. It is not surprising that Gandhi was viewed as a defender of the status quo and the protector of the vested interests of the Indian princes, the landlords, and the capitalists. For his critics, Gandhi was a reactionary who prevented change in the relationship between feudal lords and peasants or servants. Although this assumption is untenable, it acquired some plausibility from Gandhi’s unorthodox approach to social change. Gandhi’s advocacy of non-violence as the basis of Socialism and Communism was questioned by his critics as being totally unrealistic.Less
According to the eighteen accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, who included some of the founding fathers of the Communist Party of India, Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaigns were meant to sabotage revolutionary movements. They also accuse Gandhi of working for a compromise with British imperialism in favour of the Indian bourgeoisie. This accusation influenced the thinking of Indian Communists for twenty-five years. It is not surprising that Gandhi was viewed as a defender of the status quo and the protector of the vested interests of the Indian princes, the landlords, and the capitalists. For his critics, Gandhi was a reactionary who prevented change in the relationship between feudal lords and peasants or servants. Although this assumption is untenable, it acquired some plausibility from Gandhi’s unorthodox approach to social change. Gandhi’s advocacy of non-violence as the basis of Socialism and Communism was questioned by his critics as being totally unrealistic.
Gwynne Tuell Potts
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178677
- eISBN:
- 9780813178707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178677.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Casual readers of American history may assume the United States enjoyed relative peace between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812, but in fact, the West remained in turmoil and Kentucky ...
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Casual readers of American history may assume the United States enjoyed relative peace between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812, but in fact, the West remained in turmoil and Kentucky lay at the center of British, French, and Spanish intrigue. Kentuckians struggled with significant decisions leading to statehood: should they remain part of Virginia, join the United States, or become an independent entity aligned with another nation?
Navigation rights on the Mississippi River were at the heart of Kentuckians’ concerns, and as long as the federal government refused to negotiate the matter with Spain, most farmers initially were reluctant to commit themselves and their children to land-locked futures. George Rogers Clark, with the encouragement of his former soldiers, agreed to lead a contingent of settlers to form a colony on the Mississippi. Going so far as to ask Spain for permission to do so (as did Sevier, Steuben, and others), Clark unnerved the federal government.Less
Casual readers of American history may assume the United States enjoyed relative peace between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812, but in fact, the West remained in turmoil and Kentucky lay at the center of British, French, and Spanish intrigue. Kentuckians struggled with significant decisions leading to statehood: should they remain part of Virginia, join the United States, or become an independent entity aligned with another nation?
Navigation rights on the Mississippi River were at the heart of Kentuckians’ concerns, and as long as the federal government refused to negotiate the matter with Spain, most farmers initially were reluctant to commit themselves and their children to land-locked futures. George Rogers Clark, with the encouragement of his former soldiers, agreed to lead a contingent of settlers to form a colony on the Mississippi. Going so far as to ask Spain for permission to do so (as did Sevier, Steuben, and others), Clark unnerved the federal government.
Paul Flemer
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232549
- eISBN:
- 9780520928220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232549.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, ...
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This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, Giuliano de' Medici, during the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. Clement's diplomacy after the Sack of Rome shows a profound awareness of the Laurentian legacy and of the memory and myth of the Laurentian “golden age,” which had come to occupy such a large place in the consciousness of Florentine intellectual circles after 1494. Clement was not always the target of conspiracy; he was a conspirator, too. He turned to the past in his moment of crisis. The fact that the past failed him only testifies to those broader political and cultural changes that were then gathering force in Europe.Less
This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, Giuliano de' Medici, during the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. Clement's diplomacy after the Sack of Rome shows a profound awareness of the Laurentian legacy and of the memory and myth of the Laurentian “golden age,” which had come to occupy such a large place in the consciousness of Florentine intellectual circles after 1494. Clement was not always the target of conspiracy; he was a conspirator, too. He turned to the past in his moment of crisis. The fact that the past failed him only testifies to those broader political and cultural changes that were then gathering force in Europe.
Nunzio Pernicone and Fraser M. Ottanelli
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041877
- eISBN:
- 9780252050565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041877.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The first part of Chapter 7 describes the efforts by Italian authorities in conjunction with US local, state and Federal officials to root out the culprits who presumably had conspired with Bresci to ...
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The first part of Chapter 7 describes the efforts by Italian authorities in conjunction with US local, state and Federal officials to root out the culprits who presumably had conspired with Bresci to plot King Umberto’s assassination in the United States. The second part analyzes the circumstances surrounding Bresci’s death by strangulation in prison. While authorities claimed that Bresci had taken his own life, based on the available evidence, the chapter lends credence to the view that Bresci was murdered on the orders of Interior Minister Giovanni Giolitti.Less
The first part of Chapter 7 describes the efforts by Italian authorities in conjunction with US local, state and Federal officials to root out the culprits who presumably had conspired with Bresci to plot King Umberto’s assassination in the United States. The second part analyzes the circumstances surrounding Bresci’s death by strangulation in prison. While authorities claimed that Bresci had taken his own life, based on the available evidence, the chapter lends credence to the view that Bresci was murdered on the orders of Interior Minister Giovanni Giolitti.
Erin M. Kempker
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041976
- eISBN:
- 9780252050701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041976.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The final chapter sees conservative women’s fears come full circle as they faced down a feminist initiative directed by the United Nations. International Women’s Year (IWY) called for a series of ...
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The final chapter sees conservative women’s fears come full circle as they faced down a feminist initiative directed by the United Nations. International Women’s Year (IWY) called for a series of events, including regional and state conferences, leading up to a national conference in Houston in 1977. Because UN initiatives were being voted on in Indianapolis, the IWY represented the growing reach of the world government conspiracy, and feminism was the latest vehicle used by internationalists to achieve control. While feminists saw the conference as a chance to capture the national spotlight and bring attention to women’s issue, like the ERA, conservatives saw it as the ultimate showdown with satanic forces pushing for a totalitarian government they decried as “Big Sister.”Less
The final chapter sees conservative women’s fears come full circle as they faced down a feminist initiative directed by the United Nations. International Women’s Year (IWY) called for a series of events, including regional and state conferences, leading up to a national conference in Houston in 1977. Because UN initiatives were being voted on in Indianapolis, the IWY represented the growing reach of the world government conspiracy, and feminism was the latest vehicle used by internationalists to achieve control. While feminists saw the conference as a chance to capture the national spotlight and bring attention to women’s issue, like the ERA, conservatives saw it as the ultimate showdown with satanic forces pushing for a totalitarian government they decried as “Big Sister.”
Erin M. Kempker
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041976
- eISBN:
- 9780252050701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041976.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The epilogue explores how conspiracy exploded onto the national political scene in the 2016 presidential election cycle with the candidacy of Donald Trump. The prevalence of conspiracy belief in ...
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The epilogue explores how conspiracy exploded onto the national political scene in the 2016 presidential election cycle with the candidacy of Donald Trump. The prevalence of conspiracy belief in contemporary American is explored, as well as the effect conspiracy belief and conspiracism have on public perceptions of government and politics. The epilogue concludes by returning the focus to women’s politics and how conspiracy belief adds even more variety to the already large number of differences that separate American women’s politics and women’s worldviews.Less
The epilogue explores how conspiracy exploded onto the national political scene in the 2016 presidential election cycle with the candidacy of Donald Trump. The prevalence of conspiracy belief in contemporary American is explored, as well as the effect conspiracy belief and conspiracism have on public perceptions of government and politics. The epilogue concludes by returning the focus to women’s politics and how conspiracy belief adds even more variety to the already large number of differences that separate American women’s politics and women’s worldviews.
Nick Mansfield
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620863
- eISBN:
- 9781789623772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620863.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This chapter outlines government concerns about the danger of insurrection in the early nineteenth century and fear of soldiers’ subversion and involvement on the side of radical revolution. It ...
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This chapter outlines government concerns about the danger of insurrection in the early nineteenth century and fear of soldiers’ subversion and involvement on the side of radical revolution. It reviews the reality of these claims, analysing soldiers’ involvement in key events and incidents.
These range through riots and protests in the 1790s, the distribution of radical handbills subverting troops, the Despard Conspiracy, Luddism, the Post War discontent of 1815-6, working-class drilling and the use of government spies, Peterloo, the Scottish revolt of 1820, the Cato Street Conspiracy, the Queen Caroline agitation, the Reform Crisis of 1831-2, and Chartism.
The chapter concludes that whilst some threats were serious, British rank and file soldiers always obeyed officers and did their duty to Crown and country, so revolution was unlikely.Less
This chapter outlines government concerns about the danger of insurrection in the early nineteenth century and fear of soldiers’ subversion and involvement on the side of radical revolution. It reviews the reality of these claims, analysing soldiers’ involvement in key events and incidents.
These range through riots and protests in the 1790s, the distribution of radical handbills subverting troops, the Despard Conspiracy, Luddism, the Post War discontent of 1815-6, working-class drilling and the use of government spies, Peterloo, the Scottish revolt of 1820, the Cato Street Conspiracy, the Queen Caroline agitation, the Reform Crisis of 1831-2, and Chartism.
The chapter concludes that whilst some threats were serious, British rank and file soldiers always obeyed officers and did their duty to Crown and country, so revolution was unlikely.
Erik Dussere
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199969913
- eISBN:
- 9780199369027
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969913.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The book conceives the literary and cinematic category of “noir” as a way of understanding the defining conflict between authenticity and consumer culture in post–World War II America. It analyzes ...
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The book conceives the literary and cinematic category of “noir” as a way of understanding the defining conflict between authenticity and consumer culture in post–World War II America. It analyzes works of fiction and film in order to argue that both contribute to a “noir tradition” that is initiated around the end of World War II and continues to develop and evolve in the present. All of noir’s evolutions have taken place as responses to consumer culture; in the postwar era this consumer culture has become conflated with American citizenship, and the noir tradition presents itself as an “authentic” alternative to this republic of consumption. In order to see how noir and its descendants stage the confrontation between consumer culture and authenticity, my analysis is concentrated on how the texts that I write about represent various kinds of American commercial spaces. This analysis has a three-part structure, organized around the three key moments in the development of the noir tradition that I identify: (1) the postwar moment, as represented by classic film noir and hard-boiled detective fiction; (2) the sixties era, during which noir film and fiction are transformed and take the new form of the conspiracy narrative; and (3) the post-eighties period of dominant postmodernism, in which noir themes and aesthetics are revived, with a difference, to facilitate ways of responding to the phenomenon of global capitalism.Less
The book conceives the literary and cinematic category of “noir” as a way of understanding the defining conflict between authenticity and consumer culture in post–World War II America. It analyzes works of fiction and film in order to argue that both contribute to a “noir tradition” that is initiated around the end of World War II and continues to develop and evolve in the present. All of noir’s evolutions have taken place as responses to consumer culture; in the postwar era this consumer culture has become conflated with American citizenship, and the noir tradition presents itself as an “authentic” alternative to this republic of consumption. In order to see how noir and its descendants stage the confrontation between consumer culture and authenticity, my analysis is concentrated on how the texts that I write about represent various kinds of American commercial spaces. This analysis has a three-part structure, organized around the three key moments in the development of the noir tradition that I identify: (1) the postwar moment, as represented by classic film noir and hard-boiled detective fiction; (2) the sixties era, during which noir film and fiction are transformed and take the new form of the conspiracy narrative; and (3) the post-eighties period of dominant postmodernism, in which noir themes and aesthetics are revived, with a difference, to facilitate ways of responding to the phenomenon of global capitalism.
Erik Dussere
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199969913
- eISBN:
- 9780199369027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969913.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
In this chapter I argue that in the sixties and seventies the political logic of noir authenticity is taken up in the new genre of the conspiracy narrative. While noir film and fiction seem to have ...
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In this chapter I argue that in the sixties and seventies the political logic of noir authenticity is taken up in the new genre of the conspiracy narrative. While noir film and fiction seem to have exhausted themselves, their ideological resistance to consumer culture remains in the authenticity effects created by conspiracy texts. I argue that paranoid cinematic thrillers such as The Parallax View respond to the development of global capitalism by attempting to evoke the unrepresentable complexity and scope of multinational corporate networks. The America they describe is completely inhabited by forces that are too large to see, creating an imaginative impasse wherein authenticity takes the form of a recognition of the unknowability of conspiracy’s functioning, so that we can only discover and perpetually rediscover the impossibility of political action.Less
In this chapter I argue that in the sixties and seventies the political logic of noir authenticity is taken up in the new genre of the conspiracy narrative. While noir film and fiction seem to have exhausted themselves, their ideological resistance to consumer culture remains in the authenticity effects created by conspiracy texts. I argue that paranoid cinematic thrillers such as The Parallax View respond to the development of global capitalism by attempting to evoke the unrepresentable complexity and scope of multinational corporate networks. The America they describe is completely inhabited by forces that are too large to see, creating an imaginative impasse wherein authenticity takes the form of a recognition of the unknowability of conspiracy’s functioning, so that we can only discover and perpetually rediscover the impossibility of political action.
Erik Dussere
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199969913
- eISBN:
- 9780199369027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969913.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines Thomas Pynchon’s trilogy of California novels, The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice, and Vineland. Pynchon’s novels create a model in which there are “two Americas,” the ...
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This chapter examines Thomas Pynchon’s trilogy of California novels, The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice, and Vineland. Pynchon’s novels create a model in which there are “two Americas,” the mainstream one represented by the American way of life, with its interlinking of political and commercial interests; and the true, alternative republic whose promise is perpetually betrayed. Pynchon, I suggest, uses the logic of American exceptionalism in order to argue that America perpetually fails to achieve the ideal state it imagines itself to be, producing a left-leaning narrative of national self-betrayal. In these novels, the promise of authenticity resides with the outcasts, the left-out and leftover, who have no place in a mainstream America that is wholly inhabited by consumer culture and so retreat to hidden enclaves where the promise of the republic may be revived or reinvented.Less
This chapter examines Thomas Pynchon’s trilogy of California novels, The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice, and Vineland. Pynchon’s novels create a model in which there are “two Americas,” the mainstream one represented by the American way of life, with its interlinking of political and commercial interests; and the true, alternative republic whose promise is perpetually betrayed. Pynchon, I suggest, uses the logic of American exceptionalism in order to argue that America perpetually fails to achieve the ideal state it imagines itself to be, producing a left-leaning narrative of national self-betrayal. In these novels, the promise of authenticity resides with the outcasts, the left-out and leftover, who have no place in a mainstream America that is wholly inhabited by consumer culture and so retreat to hidden enclaves where the promise of the republic may be revived or reinvented.
Erik Dussere
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199969913
- eISBN:
- 9780199369027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969913.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter turns to the African American counterconspiracy narrative, a genre that combines the African American literary tradition’s conception of race as conspiracy with tropes from the exhausted ...
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This chapter turns to the African American counterconspiracy narrative, a genre that combines the African American literary tradition’s conception of race as conspiracy with tropes from the exhausted form of the noir detective novel. Novels of antiracist insurrection from the sixties and seventies argue for a form of black nationalism focused on the “authentic” space of the inner-city ghetto. The three novels I focus on here—The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee and Chester Himes’s Blind Man with a Pistol and Plan B—envision the possibility of apocalyptic political action, but in doing so continue to rely on a historically distinct conception of black authenticity that imagines itself as the politically engaged alternative to a consumerist black middle-class.Less
This chapter turns to the African American counterconspiracy narrative, a genre that combines the African American literary tradition’s conception of race as conspiracy with tropes from the exhausted form of the noir detective novel. Novels of antiracist insurrection from the sixties and seventies argue for a form of black nationalism focused on the “authentic” space of the inner-city ghetto. The three novels I focus on here—The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee and Chester Himes’s Blind Man with a Pistol and Plan B—envision the possibility of apocalyptic political action, but in doing so continue to rely on a historically distinct conception of black authenticity that imagines itself as the politically engaged alternative to a consumerist black middle-class.
Michael Barkun
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238053
- eISBN:
- 9780520939721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238053.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Superconspiracies tend to be structured in the form of plots nested within plots, each layer more evil, powerful, and inclusive than those beneath. Hence the architects of conspiracy scenarios are ...
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Superconspiracies tend to be structured in the form of plots nested within plots, each layer more evil, powerful, and inclusive than those beneath. Hence the architects of conspiracy scenarios are free to place Jews at any of a number of points in the hierarchy, at the pinnacle, in a subordinate position, or as victims completely outside the domain of evil. This chapter deals with all three variants. Conspiracy theories that reject anti-Semitism and portray Jews entirely as victims are a relatively minor area. A larger and more influential body of materials claims to reject anti-Semitism while linking some Jews to the conspiracy. The most significant case of unalloyed anti-Semitism, the Phoenix publications, is also discussed. The Phoenix publications purport to print radio transmissions received from extraterrestrials. The hostility to Nazis and anti-Semitism found in some UFO literature reflects racism concerning alleged differences between different human societies.Less
Superconspiracies tend to be structured in the form of plots nested within plots, each layer more evil, powerful, and inclusive than those beneath. Hence the architects of conspiracy scenarios are free to place Jews at any of a number of points in the hierarchy, at the pinnacle, in a subordinate position, or as victims completely outside the domain of evil. This chapter deals with all three variants. Conspiracy theories that reject anti-Semitism and portray Jews entirely as victims are a relatively minor area. A larger and more influential body of materials claims to reject anti-Semitism while linking some Jews to the conspiracy. The most significant case of unalloyed anti-Semitism, the Phoenix publications, is also discussed. The Phoenix publications purport to print radio transmissions received from extraterrestrials. The hostility to Nazis and anti-Semitism found in some UFO literature reflects racism concerning alleged differences between different human societies.
Kenneth R. Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657803
- eISBN:
- 9780191771576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657803.003.0016
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Charles Lamb was a novice poet when he visited Coleridge in Somerset in 1797; he regretted missing ‘the famous Thelwall.’ With Coleridge’s young charge Charles Lloyd, Lamb co-authored a volume titled ...
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Charles Lamb was a novice poet when he visited Coleridge in Somerset in 1797; he regretted missing ‘the famous Thelwall.’ With Coleridge’s young charge Charles Lloyd, Lamb co-authored a volume titled Blank Verse, satirized by The Anti-Jacobin as being by ‘Frog and Toad.’ (Lamb hated The Anti-Jacobin’s George Canning.) Lamb had pledged his life as security for his sister Mary, who had stabbed their mother to death in 1796. He had to avoid suspicion because penalties might have fallen on her. He worked his entire life for the East India Company, but said he ‘wrote Treason for pay’ on The Albion newspaper, edited by John Fenwick. His ‘What Is Jacobinism?’ of 1801 points the way toward his later career as one of the three great Romantic essayists. Lamb’s caution makes his radicalism hard to discover, though he freely associated with ‘unusual suspects’ who De Quincey said were ‘tabooed’ for a time.Less
Charles Lamb was a novice poet when he visited Coleridge in Somerset in 1797; he regretted missing ‘the famous Thelwall.’ With Coleridge’s young charge Charles Lloyd, Lamb co-authored a volume titled Blank Verse, satirized by The Anti-Jacobin as being by ‘Frog and Toad.’ (Lamb hated The Anti-Jacobin’s George Canning.) Lamb had pledged his life as security for his sister Mary, who had stabbed their mother to death in 1796. He had to avoid suspicion because penalties might have fallen on her. He worked his entire life for the East India Company, but said he ‘wrote Treason for pay’ on The Albion newspaper, edited by John Fenwick. His ‘What Is Jacobinism?’ of 1801 points the way toward his later career as one of the three great Romantic essayists. Lamb’s caution makes his radicalism hard to discover, though he freely associated with ‘unusual suspects’ who De Quincey said were ‘tabooed’ for a time.
Mugambi Jouet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293298
- eISBN:
- 9780520966468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293298.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in ...
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Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in America’s exceptional history. The birth of modern democracy in America fostered a populist mindset equating education with elitism. Although the Founding Fathers were learned men of the American Enlightenment, many 18th and 19th century Americans became convinced that common sense and folk wisdom were sufficient to succeed. Anti-intellectualism became particularly influential in the South, the nation’s poorest region. Conversely, education has been less associated with elitism in France and other European countries. This helps explain why modern America is sharply polarized, as the U.S. political debate reached astonishing levels of demagogy, propaganda, and disinformation well before Trump’s rise. Spurred by the Tea Party, Republicans routinely made ludicrous claims about Obama’s fake birth certificate and Islamism, “socialized medicine,” “death panels,” the “hoax” of climate change, the federal government’s “tyranny,” and other conspiracy theories. Such political extremism thrives on the ignorance, irrationality, and gullibility promoted by anti-intellectualism. Extremism in contemporary Europe is far less mainstream and more focused on immigration, the main concern of nativist far-right European parties.Less
Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in America’s exceptional history. The birth of modern democracy in America fostered a populist mindset equating education with elitism. Although the Founding Fathers were learned men of the American Enlightenment, many 18th and 19th century Americans became convinced that common sense and folk wisdom were sufficient to succeed. Anti-intellectualism became particularly influential in the South, the nation’s poorest region. Conversely, education has been less associated with elitism in France and other European countries. This helps explain why modern America is sharply polarized, as the U.S. political debate reached astonishing levels of demagogy, propaganda, and disinformation well before Trump’s rise. Spurred by the Tea Party, Republicans routinely made ludicrous claims about Obama’s fake birth certificate and Islamism, “socialized medicine,” “death panels,” the “hoax” of climate change, the federal government’s “tyranny,” and other conspiracy theories. Such political extremism thrives on the ignorance, irrationality, and gullibility promoted by anti-intellectualism. Extremism in contemporary Europe is far less mainstream and more focused on immigration, the main concern of nativist far-right European parties.
Steven B. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300198393
- eISBN:
- 9780300220988
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300198393.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Machiavelli is often described as the founder of modernity for his claim to have discovered a new kind of politics. Yet what is most characteristic of the great Florentine was his creation of a new ...
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Machiavelli is often described as the founder of modernity for his claim to have discovered a new kind of politics. Yet what is most characteristic of the great Florentine was his creation of a new “protean” image of human nature as infinitely malleable and adaptive to new and changing circumstances. This concept of free individuality is given vivid expression in Machiavelli’s play Mandragola, a satire on family life in which he applies the same methods of innovation, novelty, and audacity to private life as he does to the founding of states. Despite the play’s seemingly innocuous exterior, it presents the overthrow of the traditional family and the creation of a new domestic order. The play represents nothing less than the founding of Machiavelli’s new family values.Less
Machiavelli is often described as the founder of modernity for his claim to have discovered a new kind of politics. Yet what is most characteristic of the great Florentine was his creation of a new “protean” image of human nature as infinitely malleable and adaptive to new and changing circumstances. This concept of free individuality is given vivid expression in Machiavelli’s play Mandragola, a satire on family life in which he applies the same methods of innovation, novelty, and audacity to private life as he does to the founding of states. Despite the play’s seemingly innocuous exterior, it presents the overthrow of the traditional family and the creation of a new domestic order. The play represents nothing less than the founding of Machiavelli’s new family values.
