A great disorder : national myth and the battle for America / Richard Slotkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Slotkin, Richard, 1942- author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Myth--Political aspects--United States--History.

Myth.

Culture conflict--United States--History.

Culture conflict.

United States--History.

United States.

Myth--Political aspects.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

x, 512 pages ; 25 cm

Other Title:

National myth and the battle for America

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"Red America and Blue America are so divided they could be two different countries, with wildly diverging views of why government exists and who counts as American. Their ideologies are grounded in different versions of American history, endorsing irreconcilable visions of patriotism and national identity. A Great Disorder is a bold, urgent work that helps us make sense of today's culture wars through a brilliant reconsideration of America's foundational myths and their use in contemporary politics. Famous for his trilogy on the Myth of the Frontier, Richard Slotkin identifies five myths, born of different eras, that have shaped our conception of what it means to be American: that of the Frontier, the Founding, the Civil War (which he breaks into two opposing camps, Emancipation and the Lost Cause), and the Good War, embodied by the multi-ethnic platoon fighting for freedom. Slotkin's argument is that while Trump and his MAGA followers have played up a frontier-inspired hostility to the federal government and rallied around Confederate symbols to champion a racially exclusive definition of American nationality, Blue America, taking its cue from the protest movements of the 1960s, envisions a limitlessly pluralistic country in which the federal government is the ultimate enforcer of rights and opportunities. American history -- and the foundations of our democracy -- have become a battleground. It is not clear at this time which vision will prevail." -- Jacket flap.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. Myths of the white republic. The myth of the frontier

The myth of the founding

Part II. Civil War mythologies. Lincoln and liberation

Confederate founding: Civil War as culture war

The lost cause: redemption and the white reunion

Part III. The nation transformed: from the Civil War to the good war. Industrialization, vigilantism, and the imperial frontier

The great exception: the New Deal and national myth

The myth of the good war: platoon movies and the reconception of American nationality

Part IV. American apotheosis: from Kennedy's new frontier to Reagan's morning in America. The new frontier: savage war and social justice

Cultural revolution: the sixties, the movement, and the great society

Back in the saddle: Reagan, neoliberalism, and the war against the sixties

Rising tide: climate change and the fossil fuel frontier

Cowboys and aliens: the global war on terror

Part V. The age of culture war. The Obama presidency: the myth of the movement and the Tea Party reaction

Equalizers: the gun rights movement and culture-war conservatism

The Trump redemption: make America great again

Trump in the White House: the president as insurgent

Imagining civil war: the 2020 election

"The last president of the confederacy": Trump's lost cause

Conclusion. National myth and the crisis of democracy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 419-486) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9780674292383

0674292383

OCLC:

1391135650