7. The opening of the American mind

‘The opening of the American mind’ challenges the perception of postwar American intellectual life as a period of staid traditionalism, stifling uniformity, complacency, and consensus. While some aspects of the 1950s and early 1960s Cold War culture were intellectually suffocating, others helped to widen Americans’ intellectual horizons. America’s new status as a global superpower stimulated the development of its intellectual and cultural institutions at a pace unprecedented in its history. The dramatic expansion of higher education, think tanks, and the print culture marketplace contributed to the opening of mid-century American thought. Varieties of existentialism, the creation of a lively conservative tradition, and the growing American interest in intellectual movements and spiritual practices from around the world helped Americans “breathe a larger air.”

Antimonopolism as a Symptom of American Political Dysfunction

Contemporary American interest in using antitrust law to address wealth inequality is a symptom of American political dysfunction rather than a reflection of any intellectual advance regarding the sources of inequality. Indeed, both the original American progressives of a century ago, as well as Thomas Piketty, whose work sparked contemporary intellectual interest in inequality, agree that inequality’s source is scarcity, rather than monopoly, and so will persist even in perfectly competitive markets. The only real solution is taxation, not a potentially destructive campaign of breakup. There are two cause of contemporary American antimonopolism. The first is American anti-statism, which has closed off tax policy as a viable political solution to inequality, forcing scholars and activists to seek a second- or third-best workaround in antitrust policy. The second is the American press, which is actively promoting antimonopolism as a way of fighting back against Google and Facebook, two companies that have badly outcompeted the press for advertising dollars in recent years. Given these idiosyncratic roots of contemporary American antimonopolism, other jurisdictions seeking to address inequality may have little to gain from following the American example, particularly if taxation remains a viable policy option for them.

Pronouns and Metaphors in Obama’s and Trump’s Inaugural Speeches: A Comparative Analysis through Critical Discourse Analysis

A political speech is usually characterized by the use of different linguistic techniques and strategies that allow politicians to convey their political messages and persuade people of their ideologies and thoughts. The American presidential inaugural address is therefore a form of political discourse that imbues the characteristics of both written and oral discourse. This study consequently looked at how Presidents Barrack Obama and Donald Trump of America have used Linguistic resources (Pronouns and metaphors) to construct individual and collective ideologies and persuade America to accept their political ideologies. This exploration was carried out within the frameworks of Lakoff and Johnson Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Charter is – Black’s Critical Metaphor Theory and the content method of data analysis. The corpus was drawn from the respective official websites of Barrack Obama and Donald Trump. It was discovered that their speeches were characterized by skilful choice of rhetorical strategies to make their speeches effective in order to convince the electorates. President Obama used more of inclusive pronouns and metaphors to support and advocate for multilateralism and internationalism while Donald Trump used pronouns and metaphors that distanced him from the corrupt government that led to unemployment in America while supporting and advocating a strong American interest.

Advocating for the Muslim Ummah

This chapter provides answers to the important question on why Muslim American interest groups continue to lobby on issues related to US foreign policy following 9/11. It describes the US Muslim organizations' foreign policy activism that contradict their interests and fuel perceptions of Muslims as outsiders concerned with the interests of other nations. It also shows how foreign policy activism is seen as a means through which US Muslim organizations communicate their belongingness to America. The chapter talks about the Muslims in the United States who say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the ummah, the global Muslim community. It explains that for Muslims the sense of belonging can be to a country of origin, but it is mostly to the larger, global Muslim community and to the religious symbols of Islam.

Domestic Advocacy

This chapter looks at some of the domestic and foreign policy issues driving Muslim American interest groups. It examines how US Muslim organizations have relied on a rights-based discourse to access the political process and make claims on the state. It also highlights the varied strategies through which Islamophobia has been framed as a civil rights issue and incorporated into the historical trajectory of the movement for minority rights. The chapter mentions that the civil rights movement proved to be a watershed moment in the history of collective claims-making in the United States, which sets the standard for what targeted groups could attain by reclaiming the very institutions that had been used to legitimize their oppression. It refers to the Constitution and Bill of Rights as among the most powerful weapons in the struggle for full citizenship rights.

From Muslims in America to American Muslims

This chapter analyzes the historical trajectory of Muslim immigration, settlement, and institution building in the United States. It focuses on the structural conditions and collective traumas that have shaped the lives of Muslims in America, particularly in the post-9/11 period. It also shows the broad ethnic, national, denominational, and socioeconomic diversity among Muslims in the United States, including the emergence of organizations aiming to represent the collective interests of the group. The chapter elaborates that the emergence of Muslim American interest groups is the result of a long process of negotiated integration, which is mostly influenced by the American social, political, and legal context. It highlights the preferences of Muslim American advocacy organizations and the policy interests they pursue that resulted from the broader historical experience of Muslims in America.

Saving the Overlooked Continent. American Protestant Missions in Western Europe 1940-1975 Hans Krabbendam

<p content-type="flush left">Summary <p content-type="flush left">This book presents research into North-American evangelical missionary initiatives in Europe between 1940 and 1975. It investigates the motives and aims of the American interest in Europe and describes the further development of the American-European relationship among evangelicals. Regarding the first decades, the author deals with the competition within the conservative American camp between traditional fundamentalists and evangelicals for influence in Europe (which the fundamentalists lost) and contrasts developments in the evangelical space with those of traditional inter-church relations in the context of the World Council of Churches between North America and Europe. Krabbendam makes an important contribution to the history of the evangelical movement in Europe and the influence of North America. <p content-type="flush left">Zusammenfassung <p content-type="flush left">Dieses Buch präsentiert nordamerikanische evangelikale Missionsinitiativen in Europa in den Jahren zwischen 1940 und 1975. Es erarbeitet Motive und Ziele des amerikanischen Missionsinteresses an Europa und schildert die verschiedenen Phasen der weiteren Entwicklung des amerikanisch-europäischen Verhältnisses unter Evangelikalen. Dabei geht der Autor hinsichtlich der ersten Jahrzehnte auf den Wettstreit innerhalb des konservativen US-amerikanischen Lagers zwischen traditionellen Fundamentalisten und Evangelikalen um Einfluss in Europa ein (den das fundamentalistische Lager verlor) und stellt die Entwicklungen im evangelikalen Raum denen traditioneller zwischenkirchlicher Beziehungen im Umfeld des Weltkirchenrates zwischen Nordamerika und Europa gegenüber. Krabbendam legt einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Geschichte der evangelikalen Bewegung in Europa und des Einflusses Nordamerikas in diesen Jahrzehnten vor. <p content-type="flush left">Résumé <p content-type="flush left">Ce livre traite des initiatives missionnaires évangéliques nord-américaines en Europe entre 1940 et 1975. Il examine les motifs et les objectifs de l’intérêt américain pour l’Europe et décrit le développement de la relation américano-européenne dans la sphère évangélique. S’intéressant aux premières décennies, l’auteur étudie la compétition opposant, au sein même du camp américain conservateur, fondamentalistes traditionnels et évangéliques pour le gain d’une influence prépondérante en Europe (compétition perdue par les fondamentalistes) et compare les développements perceptibles dans l’espace évangélique à ceux des relations inter-Églises traditionnelles dans le cadre du Conseil Œcuménique des Églises entre l’Amérique et l’Europe. Krabbendam apporte une contribution importante à l’histoire du mouvement évangélique en Europe et de l’influence nord-américaine.

Americans, Greeks, and Ottomans before 1821

This chapter provides context for the years leading up to the Greek War of Independence, tracing how early Americans came to know Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Early American interest in Greece was varied, inspiring merchants, Christian missionaries, politicians, intellectuals, and adventure seekers alike to take notice of the evolving situation within the Ottoman Empire. With Greece perceived as the intellectual and political ancestor of the American Republic, each of these groups at times disagreed but also worked together toward advancing an American presence in Greece and Western Asia. American perceptions of Greece were at first molded by European and American prejudices against the Ottoman Turks. While early Americans saw themselves as having a unique and particular interest in Greece and the Ottoman Empire as a result of their own revolution, the origins of American philhellenism should be understood as being part of a global conversation concerning commerce, diplomacy, and humanitarianism. Existing conflict within the Ottoman Empire combined with European and American interest in the region played an important role in the outbreak of the Greek Revolution and influenced how an American audience came to perceive the war.

Rethinking the Larger Pattern of the American Interest in the Arab Gulf

This paper evaluates the larger pattern of American interest in the Arab Gulf. It questions whether the pattern is based on ideological or economic interest. It also critically examines various data and interprets following their (data) social, economic and political interlinks and special topics that have been significantly proposed in the state policy. This paper argues that the US foreign policy represents two larger directions of its interest: economy and ideology. Both have linked together and interrelatedly have determined and have been determined by strategic culture of the states in the region and its complexities covering all national, interstate, regional, broader regional (Middle East) and global levels. This paper also arguably states that there is no single interest that can be oversimplified, but it has remained highly dynamic or has demonstrated multiple complexities of the interest in which they are represented by issues of oil, war on terrorism, nuclear weapon and Israel.

Following Radical and Mainstream African-American Interest Groups on Social Media

Groups across the political spectrum use social media as a tool for effecting change. This article analyzes posts on the micro-blogging platform Twitter to compare the online advocacy of the NAACP—one of the oldest and most established racial justice organizations—to Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)—a newer organization that emerged at the start of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. Using data from an original dataset composed of 4,094 tweets posted from April 2016 to December 2016, I show that the NAACP is exponentially less likely than BYP100 to address issues related to gender and sexuality but significantly more likely to advocate for electoral political strategies like voting. Newer organizations do better at addressing a diverse African American constituency, but can neglect effective yet incremental reform strategies in favor of revolutionary rhetoric and action. This article encourages a consideration of how Black social movement organizations that are ostensibly very different can leverage multiple movement frames in service of a collective goal to combat racial violence and inequality. I conclude by considering organizational constraints that explain the differential rates with which these organizations discuss certain issues and the relative values of radical and mainstream political organizing.