This paper is fundamentally concerned with misperceptions of the USA, including Americans' mi... more This paper is fundamentally concerned with misperceptions of the USA, including Americans' misperceptions of their own country. These misperceptions may be contributing to pressures towards the depacification of world politics - which is paradoxical in view of the USA's declared aim of global pacification. The history of the USA in the light of Norbert Elias's theory of civilising (and decivilising) processes. Although, unlike many Western European countries, the USA never had a single monopoly 'model-setting elite' and had no nobility, it did have several competing aristocracies. The Northern Bildungsburgertum dominates perception of the USA at the expense of the Southern Junkers, whose political and cultural legacy nevertheless continues to be of great significance, notably in the comparatively high level of violence that afflicts present-day America. The peculiarities of state formation processes − including the formation of a (relatively) weak monopoly of the legitimate use of violence − in the USA and their continuation in empire formation are examined. The central experience running right through American history is of the power ratios between the Americans and their neighbours swinging steadily in America's favour, there are important consequences. Ironically, the USA has become a model-setting elite for the whole world at a time when its popular egalitarianism represents a kind of false consciousness in a factually increasingly unequal society; when the USA may be undergoing a process of de-democratisation; and when American misperceptions of the wider world, together with diminishing foresight by American governments are posing a serious problem of the depacification of world politics.
Pour beaucoup d'intellectuels, d'analystes et de commentateurs de la scène politique américaine, ... more Pour beaucoup d'intellectuels, d'analystes et de commentateurs de la scène politique américaine, Barack Obama représente encore une énigme. Cela est particulièrement vrai en ce qui concerne sa politique étrangère. Sa position, basée sur la concertation et portant plutôt sur le renouveau du leadership américain que sur le maintien de l'hégémonie des États-Unis, amène certains observateurs à affirmer que le président a entamé un processus visant à gérer le déclin de l'Amérique. Pour Gilles Vandal, l'approche multilatérale d'Obama découle davantage de sa vision intellectuelle et spirituelle du monde.
Book Reviews tive in the black heartland, instead of heading on to Chicago or New York. Two appen... more Book Reviews tive in the black heartland, instead of heading on to Chicago or New York. Two appendices are particularly interesting, documenting the names of all the musicians who played on the riverboats and all the songs that paid homage to the river. By locating jazz "on the river," Kenney draws a picture of the Jazz Age that shifts attention from the nightclubs and dance halls of major cities, broadening the social and occupational histories of the first four decades of jazz performance. His portrait of aspiring musicians who used the river to enhance their social mobility also brings a new dimension to our understanding of the Great Migration. For Kenney, the shifting racial and cultural tensions communicated through jazz resound as jazzmen riff on the ever-shifting currents of these great heartland rivers.
This paper is fundamentally concerned with misperceptions of the USA, including Americans' mi... more This paper is fundamentally concerned with misperceptions of the USA, including Americans' misperceptions of their own country. These misperceptions may be contributing to pressures towards the depacification of world politics - which is paradoxical in view of the USA's declared aim of global pacification. The history of the USA in the light of Norbert Elias's theory of civilising (and decivilising) processes. Although, unlike many Western European countries, the USA never had a single monopoly 'model-setting elite' and had no nobility, it did have several competing aristocracies. The Northern Bildungsburgertum dominates perception of the USA at the expense of the Southern Junkers, whose political and cultural legacy nevertheless continues to be of great significance, notably in the comparatively high level of violence that afflicts present-day America. The peculiarities of state formation processes − including the formation of a (relatively) weak monopoly of the legitimate use of violence − in the USA and their continuation in empire formation are examined. The central experience running right through American history is of the power ratios between the Americans and their neighbours swinging steadily in America's favour, there are important consequences. Ironically, the USA has become a model-setting elite for the whole world at a time when its popular egalitarianism represents a kind of false consciousness in a factually increasingly unequal society; when the USA may be undergoing a process of de-democratisation; and when American misperceptions of the wider world, together with diminishing foresight by American governments are posing a serious problem of the depacification of world politics.
Pour beaucoup d'intellectuels, d'analystes et de commentateurs de la scène politique américaine, ... more Pour beaucoup d'intellectuels, d'analystes et de commentateurs de la scène politique américaine, Barack Obama représente encore une énigme. Cela est particulièrement vrai en ce qui concerne sa politique étrangère. Sa position, basée sur la concertation et portant plutôt sur le renouveau du leadership américain que sur le maintien de l'hégémonie des États-Unis, amène certains observateurs à affirmer que le président a entamé un processus visant à gérer le déclin de l'Amérique. Pour Gilles Vandal, l'approche multilatérale d'Obama découle davantage de sa vision intellectuelle et spirituelle du monde.
Book Reviews tive in the black heartland, instead of heading on to Chicago or New York. Two appen... more Book Reviews tive in the black heartland, instead of heading on to Chicago or New York. Two appendices are particularly interesting, documenting the names of all the musicians who played on the riverboats and all the songs that paid homage to the river. By locating jazz "on the river," Kenney draws a picture of the Jazz Age that shifts attention from the nightclubs and dance halls of major cities, broadening the social and occupational histories of the first four decades of jazz performance. His portrait of aspiring musicians who used the river to enhance their social mobility also brings a new dimension to our understanding of the Great Migration. For Kenney, the shifting racial and cultural tensions communicated through jazz resound as jazzmen riff on the ever-shifting currents of these great heartland rivers.
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