Book Review: Legalist Empire: International Law and American Foreign Relations in the Early Twentieth Century by Benjamin Allen Coates
Benjamin Coates convincingly demonstrates that, during the first two decades of the twentieth century, international lawyers helped shaped the ascendency of the United States and justified the expansion of its empire among governmental policy makers and within wider intellectual discourses. Driven by a desire to put ‘international law into the history of American empire, and the history of empire into international law,’ Coates successfully collates disparate scholarship that has, until now, been scattered across several disciplines (5).
Continue ReadingBook Review: The Cultural Left and the Reagan Era: US Protest and Central American Revolution by Nick Witham
Ronald Reagan and the modern conservative movement have fascinated scholars and journalists ever since the 1980s. Over the last thirty years, countless popular and academic books have been published which examine either the decline of liberalism, or the development of conservative ideas during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Perplexed by the seemingly sudden, bipartisan embrace of ideas associated with conservatism, scholars have spilled much ink trying to explain the supposed right shift of the late twentieth century. In many of these narratives, Ronald Reagan takes centre stage.
Continue ReadingBook Review: Liking Ike: Eisenhower, Advertising and the Rise of Celebrity Politics by David Haven Blake
David Haven Blake’s Liking Ike: Eisenhower, Advertising and the Rise of Celebrity Politics enters the field at a timely moment. Published just before Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, Liking Ike reminds us that media and celebrity have been critical factors in electing American presidents for nearly a century.
Continue ReadingBook Review: Presidents and Their Pens: The Story of White House Speechwriters by James C. Humes
Presidents and Their Pens is a short book about presidents, presidential speeches and presidential speechwriters, in that order. In a vignette-like fashion, Humes discusses a president per chapter, twenty-three in total, analyses one of their speeches, and discusses the role of the speechwriter, if any.
Continue ReadingThe Best of 2016, and What’s next in 2017
2016 has been an eventful year for USSO, marked by much excitement and many firsts. Aside from the redesign of our newsletter and a few tweaks of our website, we’ve said our thanks and goodbyes to our previous editors, and have welcomed a new editorial team, who were introduced to the wider AM/CAN community — alongside new members of the BAAS Executive Committee — in a revival of our ‘60 Seconds With’ feature. 2016 also saw the appointment of our first European Relations Assistant Editor, Katharina Donn.
Continue ReadingMost Viewed Posts of 2016
10) Film Review of Trumbo (2015) by Hannah Graves Working from Bruce Cook’s recently re-issued biography, Trumbo (2015) follows Communist Party member Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) from his appearance before HUAC in 1947 through his jailing, his years writing screenplays pseudonymously, and, finally, his blacklist-breaking accreditation as the writer of both Spartacus (1960) and Exodus (1960). Midway through the film director Jay Roach recreates the moment that familiar protest photograph was taken and his film is at its best when it seizes on the pathos of the image by focusing on the writer’s family as they struggle to hold him afloat. Trumbo falls prey to some of the familiar tropes of Hollywood-on-Hollywood biopics, allowing the audience one too many opportunities to nod and purr knowingly at extended impressions of Golden Age stars. 9) ‘“Money, That’s What I Want”: Who Benefitted from the Crossover of African American Musicians in the 1960s?’ […]
Continue ReadingReview: ‘Homeland Insecurities’, the Canadian Association for American Studies Annual Conference
Thinking of the Patriot Act, the extrajudicial killing of Black people by American police, or Donald Trump’s demand for a border wall, anxiety appears to permeate American society. With this in mind, the annual Canadian Association of American Studies conference could not have come together under a better heading than ‘Homeland Insecurities’.
Continue ReadingReview Responses: HOTCUS Postgraduate Conference, ‘Winning Minds and Hearts: Constructing National Identity in US History’
Following our review series of the HOTCUS Postgraduate Conference, the panelists were given the opportunity to respond to the reviews; discussing questions posed, expanding on specific areas of interest, and addressing issues raised. The responses which follow—from Simon Buck (Northumbria University), Mark Eastwood (University of Nottingham), and Lauren Mottle (University of Leeds) serve to continue the conversation beyond the day itself.
Continue ReadingReview: ‘American Communities: Between the Popular and the Political’
Since the early 1980s, before which, according to Jean-Luc Nancy, ‘the word community was unknown to the discourse of thought’, the concept of ‘community’ has experienced a meteoric rise in politics, cultural discourse and academia. While the OED defines community as a group of people ‘shar[ing] the same interests, pursuits, or occupation’ and ‘distinguished by shared circumstances of nationality, race, religion, sexuality, etc.; esp. such a group living within a larger society from which it is distinct’, this notion of community is too simplistic and in fact ‘colored by romantic nostalgia for homogeneity, closeness, and sameness’.
Continue ReadingReview: HOTCUS Postgraduate Conference, ‘Patriot or Protester?: Changing Ideas of Americanism during the Vietnam Era’
The concepts of patriotism and Americanism continue to constitute central facets of American national identity and thus remain important notions within the American political milieu. For example, on 1 September 2016, just eight days before this panel discussed the concept of Americanism during the Vietnam era, The Guardian reported on prospective president Donald Trump’s plans for American schoolchildren to be taught greater respect for patriotic values. In light of the recent election result, this is even more prescient.
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