American Thought and Culture in the Twenty First Century: American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century

337 Pages·2008·11.81 MB·English

by  Morley

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AmericAn ThoughT r
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And culTure in The a
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Will the 21st century be the next American Century? Will American ideas and  u
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power dominate the globe in the coming years? Or is the prestige of the United  h
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States likely to crumble beneath new international challenges?
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This  ground-breaking  book  explores  the  changing  patterns  of  American  d
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thought and culture at the dawn of the new millennium, when the world’s 
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richest nation has never been more powerful or more controversial. It brings  l
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together some of the most eminent North American and European thinkers to  r
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investigate the crucial issues facing the United States during the early years of 
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our new century. th AmericAn Though T   Edited by 
From the hidden political shifts beneath the electoral landscape to the latest  e  

2     Martin Halliwell 
biomedical advances, from the literary response to 9/11 to the rise of reality  1 And culTure in The
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television, this book explores the political, social and cultural contours of  t      and 
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contemporary American life – but it also places the United States within a global  21st cenTury
e     Catherine Morley 
narrative of commerce, ideological conflict and international diplomacy.  n
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These eighteen new essays address such pressing issues as leadership, foreign  ry
policy, propaganda, religion, health, technology, digital media and 9/11 culture. 

The authors look back to the Clinton years and earlier periods of 20th century  E
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American life, but they also look forward to the new horizons of the century  it
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to come – to the unknown challenges of a global future and the soaring  d
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possibilities of American enterprise and imagination. y
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martin halliwell is Professor of American Studies at the University of Leicester.   H
His most recent books include American Culture in the 1950s (Edinburgh  a
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University  Press,  2007)  and  The Constant Dialogue: Reinhold Niebuhr and  iw
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American Intellectual Culture (2005). l
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catherine morley is RCUK Academic Fellow in the Cultures of Modernism at  d
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Oxford Brookes University. She has recently published Epic Gone West: John  a
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Updike, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo (2008). h
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ISBN 978 0 7486 2602 1 in
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        Edinburgh University Press r
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        22 George Square y

        Edinburgh 
            EwHw8w 9.eLuFp.ed.ac.uk        
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Cover image: Jules de Balincourt, US World Studies II (2005). Oil and enamel on panel 122 x 173 cm.  b
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Courtesy of The Saatchi Gallery, London. © Jules de Balincourt 2006 r
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Cover design: Barrie Tullett h
01 American Thought pp. i-xii:Layout 1 3/9/08 11:15 Page i
AMERICAN THOUGHT AND CULTURE
IN THE 21 CENTURY
ST
01 American Thought pp. i-xii:Layout 1 3/9/08 11:15 Page ii
01 American Thought pp. i-xii:Layout 1 3/9/08 11:15 Page iii
AMERICAN THOUGHT
AND CULTURE
IN THE 21 CENTURY
ST
Edited by
Martin Halliwell and Catherine Morley
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
01 American Thought pp. i-xii:Layout 1 3/9/08 11:15 Page iv
© editorial matter and organisation Martin Halliwell and Catherine Morley, 2008
© the chapters their several authors, 2008
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Monotype Garamond by
Norman Tilley Graphics Ltd, Northampton, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 2601 4(hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 2602 1(paperback)
The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
01 American Thought pp. i-xii:Layout 1 3/9/08 11:15 Page v
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Introduction: The Next American Century? 1
Martin Halliwell and Catherine Morley
PART 1 POLITICS
1. American Politics in the 1990s and 2000s 21
Dominic Sandbrook
2. American Leadership into the New Century 35
John Dumbrell
3. 9/11 and US Foreign Policy 49
David Ryan
4. Three Variations on American Liberalism 65
Peter Kuryla
5. The Rise of Postmodern Conservatism 81
Kevin Mattson
6. US Propaganda 97
Nancy Snow
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AMERICANTHOUGHTANDCULTUREINTHE21STCENTURY
PART 2 SOCIETY
7. Contemporary Social Criticism 115
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn
8. Religion in Post-Secular America 127
Wilfred M. McClay
9. The US and Globalisation 145
Howard Brick
10. The Future of Medicine 161
Christopher Thomas Scott
11. Technology in the 21st Century 179
Carroll Pursell
12. America and the Environment 195
John Wills
PART 3 CULTURE
13. Contemporary American Culture 211
Martin Halliwell
14. Cultural Pluralism and National Identity 227
Rebecca Tillett
15. Writing in the Wake of 9/11 245
Catherine Morley
16. American Ways of Seeing 259
Liam Kennedy
17. Television and Digital Media 275
Lynn Spigel and Max Dawson
18. Animation and Digital Culture 291
Paul Wells
Bibliography 307
Index 318
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume has provided us with the chance to work with some amazingly
talented scholars and we are very grateful to all the contributors for their
incisive commentary on the ‘time of our time’, to evoke the words of the late
Norman Mailer. When we were working on the early stages of this project
we were very aware that time always catches up on books dealing with the
present. Many readers will come to this volume when the 44th President
of the United States of America is in the White House: either the first black
president or the oldest man ever to take office. This book does not discuss
in detail the 2008 presidential campaign, as we were keen for it to appear
in print before the 2008 election to bookend the dramatic years that have
formed the first phase of the 21st century.
I am very grateful to Nicola Ramsey, Senior Commissioning Editor at
Edinburgh University Press, for her early encouragement when I emailed
excitedly from the Library of Congress in 2003, andfor helping us to develop
these embryonic ideas into this published volume.I am also indebted to the
Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford for granting me
the status of Senior Academic Fellow in 2007. That year was a very profitable
one for this volume, as it enabled me to work very closely in Oxford with my
co-editor Catherine Morley. This has been a very happy project, largely
because Catherine has been such a delightful colleague to work alongside –
and extremely tolerant of my nocturnal e-habits. Catherine and I would like
to warmly thank the Saatchi Gallery for enabling us to use a reproduction
of Jules de Balincourt’s painting US World Studies II (2005) as our cover
image.
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AMERICANTHOUGHTANDCULTUREINTHE21STCENTURY
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to colleagues in the Centre for
American Studies and the Department of English at the University of
Leicester;to my co-editor on another Edinburgh project,Andy Mousley; and
to colleagues and friends in the British Association for American Studies.
Finally, my greatest debts go to my families in Derby and Leicester, and
especially to Laraine Porter.
Martin Halliwell
While I was working on this collection, I was also carrying out my duties as
a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. I would like to thank everyone at
Brookes for their help and advice, especially Alex Goody, Daniel Lea and
Steve Matthews. I have also benefited enor mously from a fellowship at the
Rothermere American Institute, where I have tapped the experiences and
expertise of many of my co-fellows. Colleagues in the British Association for
American Studies have offered sage advice on a range of issues, for which I
am most grateful. One of the greatest gifts to the editor of a collection such
as American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century is to have a co-editor such
as Martin Halliwell, who has made this job both immensely enjoyable and
much less burdensome. I am deeply appreciative to have worked with such a
consummate professional.
As well as colleagues, I thank my parents and family, Deirdre, Elaine and
Rachel for their faith, love and encouragement. Above all, my heartfelt
gratitude goes to Dominic Sandbrook, for great stoicism and patience in the
face of innumerable evenings and weekends lost to the rigours of the editing
process.
Catherine Morley
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NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS
Howard Brick is Professor of History at Washington University in St Louis.
He specialises in 20th-century intellectual and cultural history and is the
author of several books, including Age of Contradiction: American Thought and
Culture in the 1960s (2000) and Transcending Capitalism: Visions of a New Society
in Modern American Thought (2006).
Max Dawson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication
and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington. His work explores the idea
that new technologies ranging from the remote control to the mobile
telephone will reform or rehabilitate television. He has published articles on
both television and new media.
John Dumbrell is Professor of Government at the University of Durham
and a specialist on the US presidency and international relations. He is the
author of numerous publications, most recently President Lyndon Johnson and
Soviet Communism (2004) and A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations
from the Cold War to Iraq(2006), and co-editor of two volumes, Vietnam in Iraq
(2007) and America’s War on Terrorism (2008).
Martin Halliwell is Professor of American Studies and Director of the Centre
for American Studies at the University of Leicester. He has published six
monographs on American and transatlantic intellectual, cultural and literary
history, most recently The Constant Dialogue: Reinhold Niebuhr and American
Intellectual Culture (2005), Transatlantic Modernism (2006) and American Culture
in the 1950s(2007).
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