Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11 - Softcover

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32 ratings by Goodreads

9780822332213: Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822332213 ISBN 13: 9780822332213

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2003

Dissent from the Homeland is a book about patriotism, justice, revenge, American history and symbology, art and terror, and pacifism. In this deliberately and urgently provocative collection, noted writers, philosophers, literary critics, and theologians speak out against the war on terrorism and the government of George W. Bush as a response to the events of September 11, 2001. Critiquing government policy, citizen apathy, and societal justifications following the attacks, these writers present a wide range of opinions on such issues as contemporary American foreign policy and displays of patriotism in the wake of the disaster.

Whether illuminating the narratives that have been used to legitimate the war on terror, reflecting on the power of American consumer culture to transform the attack sites into patriotic tourist attractions, or insisting that to be a Christian is to be a pacifist, these essays refuse easy answers. They consider why the Middle East harbors a deep-seated hatred for the United States. They argue that the U.S. drive to win the cold war made the nation more like its enemies, leading the government to support ruthless anti-Communist tyrants such as Mobutu, Suharto, and Pinochet. They urge Americans away from the pitfall of national self-righteousness toward an active peaceableness—an alert, informed, practiced state of being—deeply contrary to both passivity and war. Above all, the essays assembled in Dissent from the Homeland are a powerful entreaty for thought, analysis, and understanding. Originally published as a special issue of the journal South Atlantic Quarterly, Dissent from the Homeland has been expanded to include new essays as well as a new introduction and postscript.

Contributors. Srinivas Aravamudan, Michael J. Baxter, Jean Baudrillard, Robert N. Bellah, Daniel Berrigan, Wendell Berry, Vincent J. Cornell, David James Duncan, Stanley Hauerwas, Fredric Jameson, Frank Lentricchia, Catherine Lutz, Jody McAuliffe, John Milbank, Peter Ochs, Donald E. Pease, Anne R. Slifkin, Rowan Williams, Susan Willis, Slavoj Zizek

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About the Author:

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics and Professor of Law at Duke University. He is the author of many books, including The Hauerwas Reader, also published by Duke University Press.

Frank Lentricchia is the Katherine Everett Gilbert Professor of Literature and Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his numerous books are the novel Lucchesi and The Whale and Close Reading: The Reader (coedited with Andrew DuBois), both also published by Duke University Press.

Review:

"Take this book to New York City, sit down by Ground Zero, and read it and weep."
--Stephen H. Webb," Reviews in Religion and Theology"

"["Dissent from the Homeland "does] a good job of dispelling some of the more risible and discursive fictions that pertain to the event and its perpetrators."
--Julian Reid," Contemporary Political Theory"

"Americans seeking intelligent, articulate and decidedly critical commentary on these matters should read 'Dissent from the Homeland'. . . . [E]ven if readers dispute some or even most of the arguments advanced in 'Dissent from the Homeland, ' they would be foolish to ignore them."
--Robert Neralich, "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette"

"T"he South Atlantic Quarterly "is an august journal, intensely conscious of its own distinguished history. In a publisher's forward, independent of the editorial introduction, Steve Cohn draws comparison between the September 11 volume and the first issues which came out in the early 1990s."
--Mark Gibson, "Cultural Studies Review"

"This is without a doubt one of the most powerful and timely books that I have ever had the opportunity to review. . . . There is much to enchant the scholar of religion in this collection, with some perceptive discussions of the signification of location (homeland, Virgin Land, and Ground Zero) and such signifiers as the flag and blood, not forgetting apocalypticism, theodicy, and eschatology."
--Rosalind J. Hackett, "Journal of Contemporary Religion"

"Each essay in the collection wakens the reader, urges a change in the tone of the American response to terror. . . . The well-written and thoughtful essays call to those quiet voices who allow their leaders carte blanche. The experience of "Dissent From the Homeland "is a bit like reading Thoreau on Civil Disobedience: the reader comes away determined to be morally stronger. In this society we should count that a success--we need more intellectuals kicking against the pricks."
--Christopher Porter, "Symploke"

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