Synopses & Reviews
In the years since the 9/11 attacks, approximately four million Americans have turned eighteen each year and more than fifty million children have been born. These members of the millennial and post-millennial generation have come of age in a moment marked by increased anxiety about terrorism, two protracted wars, and policies that have raised questions about the U.S. strategies abroad and at home. The War of My Generation offers the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped this new generation of Americans.and#160;Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from graphic war images in the classroom to computer games designed to promote military recruitment to books about parents in the combat zone. David Kieran and the contributors address millennialsandrsquo; intersections with contemporary questions about terrorism, U.S. militarism, and U.S. foreign policy, asserting that young people are both consumers and producers of narratives that contribute to, modify, and resist discourses about 9/11 and the War on Terror. Young people have not been shielded from the attacks or from the wars and policy debates that followed; instead, they have been active participants. One study reveals that the andldquo;lived memoriesandrdquo; of the attack have led some to link the September 11th attacks to the Holocaust as moments in which innocent people suffered but resiliently persevered. Another contribution discusses how Muslim youth in Silicon Valley embraced the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement as they fought against the harassment, governmental surveillance, and denial of rights that has plagued them since 9/11. and#160;and#160;Revealing how young people understand the War on Terrorandmdash;and how adults understand the way young people thinkandmdash;The War of My Generation offers groundbreaking research on catastrophic events still fresh in our minds.and#160;and#160;
Review
andquot;A compelling study of what it means to grow up in the shadow of 9/11--the War on Terror truly is the war of their generation.andquot;
Review
andquot;The array of approaches and resources in this well-conceived and original volume will make it the and#39;go toand#39; book on how the war on terror has shaped a generation.andquot;
Synopsis
The War of My Generation is the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped the newest generation of Americans. Drawing on a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the volume considers what cultural factors and products have shaped young peopleandrsquo;s experience of the 9/11 attacks, the wars that have followed, and their experiences as emerging citizen-subjects.and#160;
Synopsis
Four decades after its end, the American war in Vietnam still haunts the nation's collective memory. Its lessons, real and imagined, continue to shape government policies and military strategies, while the divisions it spawned infect domestic politics and fuel the so-called culture wars. In Forever Vietnam, David Kieran shows how the contested memory of the Vietnam War has affected the commemoration of other events, and how those acts of remembrance have influenced postwar debates over the conduct and consequences of American foreign policy. Kieran focuses his analysis on the recent remembrance of six events, three of which occurred before the Vietnam War and three after it ended. The first group includes the siege of the Alamo in 1836, the incarceration of Union troops at Andersonville during the Civil War, and the experience of American combat troops during World War II. The second comprises the 1993 U.S. intervention in Somalia, the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In each case a range of actors--military veterans, policymakers, memorial planners, and the general public--used memorial practices associated with the Vietnam War to reinterpret the contemporary significance of past events. A PBS program about Andersonville sought to cultivate a sense of national responsibility for the My Lai massacre. A group of Vietnam veterans occupied the Alamo in 1985, seeing themselves as patriotic heirs to another lost cause. A World War II veteran published a memoir in 1980 that reads like a narrative of combat in Vietnam. Through these and other examples, Forever Vietnam reveals not only the persistence of the past in public memory but also its malleability in the service of the political present.
Synopsis
Following the 9/11 attacks, approximately four million Americans have turned eighteen each year and more than fifty million children have been born. These members of the millennial and post-millennial generation have come of age in a moment marked by increased anxiety about terrorism, two protracted wars, and policies that have raised questions about the United Statesand#39;s role abroad and at home. Young people have not been shielded from the attacks or from the wars and policy debates that followed. Instead, they have been active participantsandmdash;as potential military recruits and organizers for social justice amid anti-immigration policies, as students in schools learning about the attacks or readers of young adult literature about wars.and#160;
The War of My Generation is the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped these new generations of Americans. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from graphic war images in the classroom to computer games designed to promote military recruitment to emails from parents in the combat zone. The collection considers what cultural factors and products have shaped young peopleand#39;s experience of the 9/11 attacks, the wars that have followed, and their experiences as emerging citizen-subjects in that moment. Revealing how young people understand the War on Terrorandmdash;and how adults understand the way young people thinkandmdash;The War of My Generation offers groundbreaking research on catastrophic events still fresh in our minds.and#160;and#160;
About the Author
DAVID KIERAN is a visiting assistant professor of history at Skidmore College, in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is the author of Forever Vietnam: How a Divisive War Changed American Public Memory.and#160;