Suchergebnisse

Cultural-political configurations for identifying the contemporary black artist are problematic, due to the politics of victimization & the reproduction of powerlessness through affirmative action strategies. The culture industry's emphasis on diversity attracts self-expressing black artists, but it also victimizes them through their participation. The rap groups Public Enemy & 2 Live Crew are cited as postmodernist artists whose style & promotionally-oriented controversy are reflections of black protest. Also considered is the Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing" which offers a nihilistic criticism of the crisis of the civil rights movement, focusing on black particularism as political strategy, yet perpetuating white racist stereotypes in its portrayal of black characters. A call is made for transcending the trap of victimization & postmodernism. J. Sadler

Introduction: the inheritance -- Henry, Harry, and Eleanor: three faces of liberalism -- The breaking point -- Is there anything we can do for you, Harry? -- The key to the destiny of tomorrow: toward a philosophy and practice of liberal foreign policy -- Culture warriors before their time, 1944-50 -- The first culture war: McCarthyism and the limits of liberalism -- Eggheads in the wilderness -- Civil rights wins, communism wanes, and liberalism is reborn -- The thousand days -- Master of disaster -- Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland -- In the darkness at the edge of town -- Malaise -- The Carter interregnum -- The even bleaker years, 1980-88 -- Reentering the world of ideas, rethinking the vital center, and the rise, fall, and rise of Bill Clinton, 1988-99 -- Beautiful losers -- "Hope and change?

There is no doubt that the style of the political right today is tough, brash, and by many accounts, not very conservative sounding. After all, isn't conservatism supposed to be about maintaining standards, upholding civility, and frowning upon rebellion? In Rebels All! historian Kevin Mattson explains the apparent contradictions of the party in this fresh examination of the postwar conservative mind. Examining a big cast of characters that includes William F. Buckley, Whittaker Chambers, Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, Kevin Phillips, David Brooks, and others, Mattson shows how right-wing intellectuals have always, but in different ways, played to the populist and rowdy tendencies in America's political culture.

American liberalism today is in a state of confusion and disarray, with the "L word" widely considered a term of derision. By examining both the historical past and the fractious present, Liberalism for a New Century restores a proud political tradition and carves out a formidable defense of its philosophical tenets. This manifesto for a New Liberalism issues an urgent and cogent call for the most important rethinking of its values since the late 1960s, when conservatives reenergized themselves after Barry Goldwater's infamous loss. The essays in this volume, most of them never before published, are written by a leading group of historians, journalists, and public intellectuals. Some of the nation's most highly respected liberal minds explore such topics as the classical liberal tradition, postmodernism's challenge to the American "Enlightenment," the civil rights era, the influence of twentieth-century radicals on American liberalism, the 1950s, tolerance, the cold war, and whether liberalism should have a large and aggressive vision. One essay considers liberalism in Iran and what American liberals might learn from this movement. Fast-paced and encompassing such hot-button issues as the family and religion, here are ringside-seat arguments between people who don't often get to engage with one another: right-leaning liberals like Peter Berkowitz and John Patrick Diggins, and leftier liberals like Michael Tomasky and Mona Harrington. The result is a lively and stimulating collection that articulates a clear-minded alternative to the conservative ascendancy in American history and offers a timely and essential contribution to the growing national debate