Synopses & Reviews
All empires spin self-serving myths, and in the US the most potent of these is that America is a force for democracy around the world. Yet there is a tradition of American anti-imperialism that exposes this misleading mythology. American Insurgents is a surprising, revelatory history of anti-imperialism in the United States since the American Revolution. It charts the movements against empire from the Indian Wars and the expansionism of the slave South to the Anti-Imperialist League of Mark Twain and Jane Addams. Seymour crafts a lively and transparent explanation of why some of these movements succeeded and others failed. The result is a vital perspective for those organizing antiwar resistance today.
Review
American Insurgents presents an indispensable history of anti-imperialist movements in the United States. . . . Seymour shatters a whole host of standard misconceptions about resistance to overseas adventures, refuting the common portrait of a US public apathetic to the crimes of its government in foreign lands. . . . The book is illuminated by the courageous and inspiring voices of US anti-imperialists, from Frederick Douglass to Muhammad Ali to current opponents of recent US wars in the Middle East.”
Michael Schwartz, author, War Without End
In these times of international rebellion, [Richard Seymour] has given us a tool with which to build a movement for a more just world, both within and beyond our borders.”
Camilo Mejía, author, Road to ar-Ramadi
In the tradition of Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States and Joe Allens Vietnam, Richard Seymour shows that US imperialism has generated significant domestic opposition rooted in grassroots movements for racial, economic, and social justice.”
Michael Letwin, founding member, New York City Labor Against the War and Labor for Palestine
Synopsis
From Mark Twain to the movement against the war in Vietnam, this is the story of ordinary Americans challenging empire.
Synopsis
"Seymour's obsessively researched, impressive first book holds its place as the most authoritative historical analysis of its kind."—Resurgence
All empires spin self-serving myths, and in the United States the most potent of these is that America is a force for democracy around the world. Yet there is a tradition of American anti-imperialism which gives the lie to this mythology. Richard Seymour examines this complex relationship from the Revolution to the present-day.
Richard Seymour is a socialist writer and runs the blog Lenin's Tomb. He is the author of The Liberal Defense of Murder. His articles have appeared in the Guardian and New Statesman.
About the Author
Richard Seymour is a socialist writer and columnist and runs the blog Lenin's Tomb. He is the author of
The Liberal Defense of Murder (Verso, 2008), and
The Meaning of David Cameron (Zero Books, 2010). He has contributed to
Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq and the Left , (NYU Press, 2008) and
The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence (Ashgate, forthcoming). His articles have appeared in
The Guardian,
The New Statesman,
Radical Philosophy and
Historical Materialism. Originally from Northern Ireland, he now resides in London, where he is studying for a PhD at the London School of Economics.