This sweeping history of twentieth-century America follows the changing and often conflicting ideas about the fundamental nature of American society: Is the United States a social melting pot; as our civic creed warrants; or is full citizenship somehow reserved for those who are white and of the "right" ancestry? Gary Gerstle traces the forces of civic and racial nationalism; arguing that both profoundly shaped our society. After Theodore Roosevelt led his Rough Riders to victory during the Spanish American War; he boasted of the diversity of his men's origins- from the Kentucky backwoods to the Irish; Italian; and Jewish neighborhoods of northeastern cities. Roosevelt's vision of a hybrid and superior "American race;" strengthened by war; would inspire the social; diplomatic; and economic policies of American liberals for decades. And yet; for all of its appeal to the civic principles of inclusion; this liberal legacy was grounded in "Anglo-Saxon" culture; making it difficult in particular for Jews and Italians and especially for Asians and African Americans to gain acceptance. Gerstle weaves a compelling story of events; institutions; and ideas that played on perceptions of ethnic/racial difference; from the world wars and the labor movement to the New Deal and Hollywood to the Cold War and the civil rights movement. We witness the remnants of racial thinking among such liberals as FDR and LBJ; we see how Italians and Jews from Frank Capra to the creators of Superman perpetuated the New Deal philosophy while suppressing their own ethnicity; we feel the frustrations of African-American servicemen denied the opportunity to fight for their country and the moral outrage of more recent black activists; including Martin Luther King; Jr.; Fannie Lou Hamer; and Malcolm X. Gerstle argues that the civil rights movement and Vietnam broke the liberal nation apart; and his analysis of this upheaval leads him to assess Reagan's and Clinton's attempts to resurrect nationalism. Can the United States ever live up to its civic creed? For anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic; this book is must reading.
#2196567 in Books Princeton University Press 1993-03-08 1993-03-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .75 x 6.00l; 1.00 #File Name: 0691024812299 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. along with "The Question's of King Milinda / Menander" are my favorite historical readings on Buddhism so farBy Jared G.Halfway through the book and I'm enjoying every minute of being transported back to the Meiji era. It's a heavy read; so be prepared to pause and absorb each detail. This book; along with "The Questions of King Milinda / Menander" are my favorite historical readings on Buddhism so far!8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Insight into modern Japanese BuddhismBy Kim BoykinThis book is an academic study of the persecution of Buddhism in Japan in the first half of the Meiji era--i.e.; in the late nineteenth century. It may be of interest to different readers for different reasons:(1) It's a study of a particular period in JAPANESE HISTORY; highlighting "the dominant ideological concerns of the period and the consequences of those concerns for individual and institutional action."(2) It's a study of PERSECUTION and responses to it; using as a case study the Meiji Buddhists; who managed to transform themselves from heretics to martyrs.(3) It's a study of JAPANESE BUDDHISM. Meiji Buddhism was "caught in the crossfire between Shintoists; enlightenment thinkers; nationalists; imperialists; economists; Confucians; and the newly emergent scientists and historians . . . as they did battle over the correct interpretation of 'civilization and enlightenment.'" Japanese Buddhism not only survived persecution but; in responding to this persecution and also to critiques from within; managed to reconstitute itself as nonheretical. This was done so effectively that the Meiji persecution of Buddhism "is all but forgotten in chronicles of Japanese history;" and the "modern Buddhism" produced by the Meiji Buddhists came to be central to Japan's self-understanding.Ch. 1 examines the critiques of Buddhism in the Tokugawa era that set the stage for persecution in the Meiji era--historicist; nativist; and economic critiques. Ch. 2 examines the Meiji persecution of Buddhism and some Buddhist responses to it. Ch. 3 examines the creation of a national ideology and the institutions designed to promulgate it; including the Great Teaching Academy; and the Buddhist-led countermovement that closed the academy and transformed Buddhism "from a persecuted other to a paradigmatic martyr of the illustrious heritage of the nation." Ch. 4 examines the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago and its role in Japanese Buddhism's self-(re)definition as modern; cosmopolitan; and universally applicable. And Ch. 5 examines the way in which a unified vision of Meiji Buddhism and a new history were created and how they were used in producing a Buddhist claim to religious universality.I read this book mainly to learn about the Japanese Buddhism that was transmitted to the U.S.; and I was interested to learn that it wasn't just Western Buddhists who were responding to accusations that Buddhism is passive or who were touting Buddhism as an eminently rational religion. Japanese Buddhists were already refiguring Buddhism as socially useful and as compatible with an enlightened society and a scientific worldview.
