Synopses & Reviews
Body and Nation interrogates the connections among the body, the nation, and the world in twentieth-century U.S. history. The idea that bodies and bodily characteristics are heavily freighted with values that are often linked to political and social spheres remains underdeveloped in the histories of Americaand#39;s relations with the rest of the world. Attentive to diverse state and nonstate actors, the contributors provide historically grounded insights into the transnational dimensions of biopolitics. Their subjects range from the regulation of prostitution in the Philippines by the U.S. Army to Cold War ideals of American feminine beauty, and from andquot;body countsandquot; as metrics of military success to cultural representations of Mexican migrants in the United States as public health threats. By considering bodies as complex, fluctuating, and interrelated sites of meaning, the contributors to this collection offer new insights into the workings of both soft and hard power.
Contributors. Frank Costigliola, Janet M. Davis, Shanon Fitzpatrick, Paul A. Kramer, Shirley Jennifer Lim, Mary Ting Yi Lui, Natalia Molina, Brenda Gayle Plummer, Emily S. Rosenberg, Kristina Shull, Annessa C. Stagner, Marilyn B. Young
Review
andquot;This unusually synthetic and well-conceived volume covers historical and contemporary situations in which the bodies of civilians, combatants, and those defined as outsiders are managed, mobilized, and politically tethered to broad nationalist and imperial projects and#39;at homeand#39; and and#39;abroad.and#39; In attending to the details of bodily care and coercion, the contributors ask why, how, and when bodies matter, demonstrating the blur between technologies of war and ever more sophisticated forms of peacetime surveillance. Taken together, their essays show that we need to know more about whose bodies count in the changing landscape of national security and imperial governance and in the embattled space between and#39;careand#39; and and#39;control.and#39;andquot;
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Review
andquot;This splendid collection will engage both scholars of American foreign policy and American studies. The essays are lively, pertinent, and very smart. They are a pleasure to read.andquot;
Review
andldquo;[O]n whole the volume succeeds well in pushing forward the idea of linking body and nation.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Body and Nation is a valuable contribution to the history of the body and the andlsquo;transnational and transactional dimensions of biopoliticsandrsquo; (2).... Throughout their volume the included essays put forth a compelling portrait of the social construction of physical bodies and the ways they have andlsquo;intertwined with projections of a U.S. National bodyandrsquo; (2).andrdquo;
Synopsis
Attentive to the connections among the body, the nation, and the world in twentieth-century U.S. history, the contributors provide historically grounded insights into the transnational dimensions of biopolitics. Their subjects range from the regulation of prostitution in the Philippines by the U.S. Army to Cold War ideals of American feminine beauty, and from andquot;body countsandquot; as metrics of military success to cultural representations of Mexican migrants in the United States as public health threats.
About the Author
Emily S. Rosenberg is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of
Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900andndash;1930 and
A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory, both also published by Duke University Press, and the editor of
A World Connecting, 1870andndash;1945.
Shanon Fitzpatrick is a Faculty Lecturer in the Department of History at McGill University.
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