A dramatic, deeply informed account of one of the most consequential elections and periods in American history, 1968--rife with riots, assassinations, anti-Vietnam War protests, and realpolitik--was one of the most tumultuous years in the twentieth century, culminating in one of the most consequential presidential elections in American history. The Contest tells the story of that contentious election and that remarkable year. Bringing a fresh perspective to events that still resonate half a century later, this book is especially timely, giving us the long view of a turning point in American culture and politics. Author Michael Schumacher sets the stage with a deep look at the people with important roles in the unfolding drama: Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and especially Hubert H. Humphrey, whose papers and journals afford surprising new insights. Following these politicians in the lead-up to the primaries, through the chaotic conventions, and down the home stretch to the general election, The Contest combines biographical and historical details to create a narrative as intimate in human detail as it is momentous in scope and significance. An election year when the competing forces of law and order and social justice were on the ballot, the Vietnam War divided the country, and the liberal regime begun with Franklin D. Roosevelt was on the defensive, 1968 marked a profound shift in the nation's culture and sense of itself. Thorough in its research and spellbinding in the telling, Schumacher's book brings sharp focus to that year and its lessons for our current critical moment in American politics.
"How could such a thing happen on a goddamn lake?" Lakes Superior and Michigan -- "So violent a storm": apocalypse on Lake Huron -- "You might not have light tonight": the storm visits Cleveland -- "I might see you in heaven": explorations of loss -- "This was not natural": discoveries
AbstractThis article envisions a new conceptual framework for collective identity among Palestinians and Israelis that can be modeled after congruent religious values. By identifying discreet values through the content analysis of religious scripture, this article argues that a new collective identity can be made, and a collective movement for peace initiated, by reframing and amplifying key religious values that are shared widely in Palestine/Israel. The analysis reveals that the religious centrality of Abraham to Palestinians and Israelis can act as a starting point for situating a transcendent connection between ideologically conflicted group identities. Furthermore, the cultural heritages of alms giving, forgiveness, and repentance can help overcome secular and religious barriers by acting as a key conceptual tool for interfaith dialog and negotiation. And finally, the inviolability of Jerusalem to both groups can be reframed to emphasize sacred space as a constructive mechanism for political and social equality rather than division. The article concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of this framework for grassroots peacemaking as well as the future viability of national partition plans.
Why do individuals take the extraordinary risk of traveling abroad to fight, and potentially die, in another country's conflict? This dissertation compares the motivations behind the U.S. citizens who fought on behalf of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Tunisian citizens who fought on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Syrian Civil War (2011 - present). The study relies on personal narratives of individual foreign fighters collected through twelve weeks of archival research at the Tamiment Library in New York City and the Ernest Hemingway Archives in Boston dedicated to U.S. foreign fighters and fifteen weeks of field research in Tunisia conducting interviews and examining interview and focus group data on Tunisian foreign fighters to understand the competing motivations driving individual decisions to travel and fight for a foreign cause. This dissertation's findings suggest that a robust understanding of the foreign fighter phenomenon must, by necessity, draw on multiple theories and scholarly literatures. Three factors, social networks, collective identity, and sacred values, are significant across both cases, suggesting that they are necessary factors driving the foreign fighter phenomenon. A fourth factor, structural grievances, was significant in explaining the case of Tunisian foreign fighters to ISIS but not U.S. foreign fighters to the International Brigades, suggesting that the finding is not robust, but is nevertheless one that is ripe for future research. Personal grievances and economic incentives were not significant factors in either case. These results potentially establish foreign fighting as an act that is distinct among different types of collective action, with implications for both academics and policymakers.
