An Unfamiliar America

Essays in American Studies
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-0-367-55141-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 490 g

Reihe: Routledge Advances in American History

This collection focuses on conceptions of the unfamiliar from the viewpoint of mainstream American history: aliens, immigrants, ethnic groups, and previously unencountered ideas and ideologies in Trumpian America. The book suggests bringing historical thinking back to the center of American Studies, given that it has been recently challenged by the influential memory studies boom. As much as identity-building appears to be the central concern for much of the current practice in American history writing, it is worth keeping in mind that historical truth may not always directly contribute to one's identity-building. The researcher’s constant quest for truth does not equate to already possessing it. History changes all the time, because it consists of our constant reinterpretation of the past. It is only the past that does not change. This collection aims at keeping these two apart, while scrutinizing a variety of contested topics in American history, from xenophobic attitudes toward eighteenth-century university professors, Apache masculinity, Ku Klux Klan, Tom Waits's lyrics, and the politics of the Trump era.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Helo, Ari

Saikku, Mikko

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  Part 1: Facing and Adapting to an Unfamiliar America  1. "Hoist That Rag": Tom Waits, the Uncanny, and the Old, Weird America  2. "Damn the European Professors": Higher Education and Xenophobia in Jefferson’s Virginia  3. "Brave Men to Brave Men": Experiencing Honor and Masculinities on a Settler Colonial Borderland  4. Aleš Hrdlicka and the Boundaries of Whiteness  Part 2: Conservatives and Liberals in the Unfamiliar Trumpian America  5. Defending the Unreached and Unknown: American Evangelical Advocacy for International Religious Freedom  6. Elite Unfamiliarity and Popular Recognition: Texas Tea Party Republicans’ Embrace of Donald Trump in 2016  7. Trump and the Christian Right: The Political Theology Behind the Mutual Attraction  8. Voting Against the Unfamiliar: The Rural/Urban Divide in U.S. Elections  9. It Can't Happen Here: The Struggle Against Tyranny and the Trouble with Liberalism  Part 3: African American History and the Present  10. History Matters  11. Race in the Cultural Politics of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan  12. Emmett Till, History and Memory  13. The Lessons of the Civil Rights Movement for Activists in Xenophobic Times

Über Autor(innen)

Ari Helo is a Senior University Lecturer in North American Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Mikko Saikku is the McDonnell Douglas Professor of American Studies at the University of Helsinki.