The Predicament of National Character

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Blaustein
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Character ◽  
Lonely Crowd ◽  
American Military ◽  
American Character ◽  
History Of ◽  
Henry Luce ◽  
Second World

“National character” has a curious history in the twentieth century. Margaret Mead wrote the first anthropological account of the United States in 1942, but the history of national character as a concept runs through social psychology and anthropology between the wars, the cultivation of “morale” during the Second World War, and the deployment of social science in postwar American military occupations. That history is the subject of this chapter: what “American character” revealed and obscured, both nationally and internationally. Mead was the Henry Luce of anthropology: her life and writings offer a miniature of the science of characterology in the American Century. The chapter begins as an institutional and intellectual history, but concludes with new readings of three postwar texts. Characterology was indeed a science, of a kind, but it was also an art. Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a remote ethnography of Japan, is a parable of American power and its limits. Mead’s New Lives for Old, recounting her return to New Guinea in 1953, becomes a sermon about a Polynesian city upon a hill. David Riesman’s classic of sociology, The Lonely Crowd, closes one frontier of national character but opens another. To consider national character as narrative and ideology illuminates American character’s imprint on the world.

Turning Aliens into Socialists

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Jessica Moberg
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Swedish History ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Highly Evolved

Immediately after the Second World War Sweden was struck by a wave of sightings of strange flying objects. In some cases these mass sightings resulted in panic, particularly after authorities failed to identify them. Decades later, these phenomena were interpreted by two members of the Swedish UFO movement, Erland Sandqvist and Gösta Rehn, as alien spaceships, or UFOs. Rehn argued that ‘[t]here is nothing so dramatic in the Swedish history of UFOs as this invasion of alien fly-things’ (Rehn 1969: 50). In this article the interpretation of such sightings proposed by these authors, namely that we are visited by extraterrestrials from outer space, is approached from the perspective of myth theory. According to this mythical theme, not only are we are not alone in the universe, but also the history of humankind has been shaped by encounters with more highly-evolved alien beings. In their modern day form, these kinds of ideas about aliens and UFOs originated in the United States. The reasoning of Sandqvist and Rehn exemplifies the localization process that took place as members of the Swedish UFO movement began to produce their own narratives about aliens and UFOs. The question I will address is: in what ways do these stories change in new contexts? Texts produced by the Swedish UFO movement are analyzed as a case study of this process.

Versatile and cheap: a global history of soy in the first half of the twentieth century

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Prodöhl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Cash Crop ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis article traces the complex and shifting organization of soy's production and consumption from Northeast China to Europe and the United States. It focuses on a set of national and transnational actors with differing interests in the global and national spread of soybeans. The combination of these actors in certain spatiotemporal contexts enabled a fundamental change in soy from an Asian to an American cash crop. At the beginning of the twentieth century, soy rapidly became Northeast China's cash crop, owing to steadily increasing Western demand. However, the versatility of soy – and soy oil in particular – offered a highly successful response to the agricultural and industrial challenges that the United States faced during the Great Depression and the Second World War. By the end of the war, American farmers in the Midwest cultivated more soybeans than their Chinese counterparts.

I

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 896-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Lachs
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
Second World ◽  
Shed Light

To write of Philip Jessup means to survey the history of the teaching of international law in the United States throughout the last half century; to cover all important events concerning the birth of international organizations on the morrow of the Second World War; to visit the halls of the General Assembly and the Security Council; to attend meetings of the American Society of International Law and the Institute of International Law, where he so frequently took the floor to shed light on their debates; to attend sittings of the International Court of Justice in the years 1960-1969. I could hardly undertake this task; there are others much more qualified to do so. What I wish to do is to recall him as a great jurist I knew and a delightful human being; in short, a judge and a great friend whom I learned to admire.

scholarly journals English-Polish contrastive grammar at Polish universities

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 126-138
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
World War ◽  
English Departments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Second World

Although contrastive studies do not enjoy great prestige among linguists, they have a very long tradition dating back to ca. 1000 A.D. when Ælfric wrote his Grammatica, a grammar of Latin and English. Even then he must have been aware of the fact that the knowledge of one language may be helpful in the process of learning another language (Krzeszowski 1990). Similarly, it seems that throughout the history of mankind teachers of a foreign language must have realized that a native and foreign tongue can be contrasted. However, contrastive linguistics only came into being as a science at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The first works were almost purely theoretical, and it is worth emphasizing that among the first scholars working in the field was Baudouin de Courtenay, a Polish linguist, who published his contrastive grammar of Polish, Russian and Old Church Slavonic in 1912. The outbreak of the Second World War was a milestone in the development of applied contrastive studies since a need to teach foreign languages in the United States arose as a result. The 1960’s is considered a further step in the development of contrastive grammar since a number of projects were initiated both in Europe and in the U.S.A. (Willim, Mańczak-Wohlfeld 1997), which resulted in the introduction of courses in English-Polish contrastive grammar at Polish universities. The aim of the present paper is to characterize and evaluate the courses offered in the English departments of selected Polish universities and to suggest an “ideal” syllabus.

14. War and world politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarak Barkawi
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern State ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second World

This chapter examines how war fits into the study of international relations and the ways it affects world politics. It begins with an analysis of the work of the leading philosopher of war, Carl von Clausewitz, to highlight the essential nature of war, the main types of war, and the idea of strategy. It then considers some important developments in the history of warfare, both in the West and elsewhere, with particular emphasis on interrelationships between the modern state, armed force, and war in the West and in the global South. Two case studies are presented, one focusing on war and Eurocentrism during the Second World War, and the other on the impact of war on society by looking at France, Vietnam, and the United States. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether democracy creates peace among states.

Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War: Some Reflections on the 1945–8 Conjuncture

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell ◽  
Ian Roxborough
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.

2. An intellectual poison?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Dodds
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
World War ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Second World

The notion of geopolitics has not always been well received. It has been accused of being intellectually fraudulent, ideologically suspect, and tainted with associations with Nazism and fascism. ‘An intellectual poison?’ charts a brief history of geopolitics from before the Second World War to the present day looking at its origins, development, and reception. What is critical geopolitics? Geopolitics has attracted a great deal of academic and popular attention, often with little appreciation of its controversial intellectual history. Presidents and political commentators seem to love using the term: they associate it with danger, threats, space, and power. It is often used to make predictions about the future direction of politics.

Water powers: the Second World War and the mobilization of hydroelectricity in Canada, the United States, and Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Cohn ◽  
Matthew Evenden ◽  
Marc Landry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Hydroelectric Development ◽  
War Effort ◽  
History Of ◽  
War Production ◽  
Second World

AbstractComparing three of the major hydroelectric power-producing countries during the war – Canada, the United States, and Germany – this article considers the implications of expanding hydroelectricity for war production and strategy, and how wartime decisions structured the longer-term evolution of large technological systems. Despite different starting points, all three countries pursued similar strategies in attempting to mobilize hydroelectricity for the war effort. The different access to and use of hydro in these states produced a vital economic and ultimately military advantage or disadvantage. The global dimensions of hydroelectric development during the war, moreover, demonstrate that this conflict was a turning point in the history of electrification.

Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healingby Jo-Ann EpiskenewThe Cambridge History of Canadian Literature, edited by Coral Ann Howells and Eva-Marie KröllerRené Lévesque: Mythes et réalités, edited by Alexandre StefanescuHabiter la distance: Études en marge de La distance habitée, edited by Lucie Hotte and Guy PoirierCanadians Under Fire: Infantry Effectiveness in the Second World War, by Robert EngenWarming Up to the Cold War: Canada and the United States’ Coalition of the Willing, from Hiroshima to Korea, by Robert TeigrobSecond Promised Land: Migration to Alberta and the Transformation of Canadian Society, by Harry H. HillerWho Do We Think We Are? Canada's Reasonable (and Less Reasonable) Accommodation Debates, by Robin HighamComment Comparer le Canada avec Les États-Unis Aujourd'hui: Enjeux et pratiques, edited by Hélène Quanquin, Christine Lorre-Johnston and Sandrine Ferré-RodeOur Place in the Sun: Canada and Cuba in the Castro Era, edited by Robert Wright and Lana WylieOn Roosevelt's Bright Shadow: Presidential Addresses About Canada from Taft to Obama in Honourof FDR's 1938 Speech at Queen's University, edited by Arthur MilnesScience Fiction from Québec: A Postcolonial Study, by Amy J. RansomThe War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon, by Jeremy BlackTechnology and Nationalism, by Marco Adria

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-566
Author(s):  
Eileen M. Angelini ◽  
Albert Braz ◽  
Kevin J. Christiano ◽  
Patrick Coleman ◽  
Clifford Egan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Indigenous Literature ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World ◽  
Le Canada
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