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While the term ""culture wars"" often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiralling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in multiple sites and languages. Charting the multidirectional traffic of the debates, Stam/Shohat trace their literal and figurative translation, seen in French Postcolonial Studies and Brazilian Whiteness Studies, and in such cultural phenomena as Tropicalia and Hip-Hop. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians join hands with leftist intellectuals, along with

While the term "culture wars" often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiraling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in diverse sites and languages. Race in Translation charts the transatlantic traffic of the debates within and between three zones—the U.S., France, and Brazil. Stam and Shohat trace the literal and figurative translation of these multidirectional intellectual debates, seen most recently in the emergence of postcolonial studies in France, and whiteness studies in Brazil. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron join hands with some leftist intellectuals like Benn Michaels, Žižek, and Bourdieu in condemning "multiculturalism" and "identity politics." At once a report from various "fronts" in the culture wars, a mapping of the germane literatures, and an argument about methods of reading the cross-border movement of ideas, the book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the Diasporic and the Transnational.

While many books focus on anti-Americanism, and many on patriotism, Flagging Patriotism audaciously links the two issues. Within a multiper-spectival approach, the authors reframe the usual "Why do they hate us?" question, asking how do other nations love themselves, and how is that self-love linked to their views of the United States? Is love of country "monogamous," or can one love many countries? In the age of imperial democracy, how can Americans learn from international critics, but also point out that anti-Americans "get it wrong"? Rather than simply endorse or reject the criticisms, the book scores both the anti-French hysteria of the right and the submerged narcissism of some French anti-Americanism. The boisterous superpatriots, meanwhile, are exposed as not being patriots at all. Drawing upon the authors' experience and knowledge of Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, Flagging Patriotism expands American studies by deploying a fresh, interconnective, and transnational grid. Dedicated to cable clowns like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the book combines transdisciplinary expertise with a colloquial and often humorous style. While touching on many hot-button issues, it also clarifies present-day tensions by seeing them against the longer historical backdrop of various national mythologies and exceptionalisms