Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11

By Stanley HauerwasFrank LentricchiaDaniel Berrigan, et al.

Book Overview

Dissent from the Homeland is a book about patriotism, justice, revenge, American history and symbology, art and terror, and pacifism. In this deliberately and urgently provocative collection, noted writers, philosophers, literary critics, and theologians speak out against the war on terrorism and the government of George W. Bush as a response to the events of September 11, 2001. Critiquing government policy, citizen apathy, and societal justifications following the attacks, these writers present a wide range of opinions on such issues as contemporary American foreign policy and displays of patriotism in the wake of the disaster. Whether illuminating the narratives that have been used to legitimate the war on terror, reflecting on the power of American consumer culture to transform the attack sites into patriotic tourist attractions, or insisting that to be a Christian is to be a pacifist, these essays refuse easy answers. They consider why the Middle East harbors a deep-seated hatred for the United States. They argue that the U.S. drive to win the cold war made the nation more like its enemies, leading the government to support ruthless anti-Communist tyrants such as Mobutu, Suharto, and Pinochet. They urge Americans away from the pitfall of national self-righteousness toward an active peaceableness--an alert, informed, practiced state of being--deeply contrary to both passivity and war. Above all, the essays assembled in Dissent from the Homeland are a powerful entreaty for thought, analysis, and understanding. Originally published as a special issue of the journal South Atlantic Quarterly, Dissent from the Homeland has been expanded to include new essays as well as a new introduction and postscript. Contributors. Srinivas Aravamudan, Michael J. Baxter, Jean Baudrillard, Robert N. Bellah, Daniel Berrigan, Wendell Berry, Vincent J. Cornell, David James Duncan, Stanley Hauerwas, Fredric Jameson, Frank Lentricchia, Catherine Lutz, Jody McAuliffe, John Milbank, Peter Ochs, Donald E. Pease, Anne R. Slifkin, Rowan Williams, Susan Willis, Slavoj Zizek

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822332213
• ISBN13: 9780822332213
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

"He who has ears, let him hear..."

There are many people who believe that America is now facing the greatest enemy in its history. I am one of the them; the difference is that I don't think that enemy is some vague dark cloud called "terror" enveloping everything outside the borders of the United States. The greatest enemy we faces is ourselves. The events of September 11 should have incited an awakening. Americans should have begun to realize how the United States, in its relentless pursuit of its own happiness, has trampled on all of the people of the rest of the world. In America's blind selfishness, American has inflicted unbelievable pain. In the wake of September 11, the American public should have begun to see its own pride, assumed responsibility for the atrocities it has caused, and made changes. Instead, America managed to become even more supercilious, enveloping itself in self-serving lies (most propagated by the Bush administration and the media), lies that America is "good" and "they" are "evil," lies encouraging Americans to thrash out against the world blindly and violently. Thank God, there are still some people who can see and who can hear. Thank God, they have the courage to say the truth even when the masses don't want to hear it. In Dissent from the Homeland, religious scholars and theologians have analyzed America's abhorrent response to September 11 and are fighting back with words against the forces of lovelessness and lawlessness threatening America.Dissent from the Homeland is the most eye-opening book I have read in a longtime. These essays approach the response to September 11 from historical, aesthetic, sociological, and ethical perspectives, and the insights they offer are really astounding (my favorite essays are those by Wendell Berry and Stanley Hauerwas). American life is certainly in peril, and if the United States wants to save itself, it should begin here.