Description
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Ethnographies of U.S. Empire examine how people live in and with empire, presenting ethnographic scholarship from across U.S. imperial formations, from the Mohawk Nation, Korea, and the Philippines to Guantánamo and the hills of New Jersey.
Trade Review"
Ethnographies of U.S. Empire cover[s] myriad aspects of American life and history, from American conduct in dealing with indigenous peoples to the Iran-Contra conspiracy and the War on Terror. . . . The nearly 50-page bibliography offers a sturdy jumping-off point for further study. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." -- S.J. Zuber-Chall * Choice *
"These essays raise important questions not always broached by historians, particularly the consequences and materiality of rumor, conspiracy, epistemology, and neoliberalism. The volume will be useful for students and scholars of U.S. empire, and it encourages interdisciplinary conversations between historians and anthropologists." -- Jana Kate Lipman * Journal of American History *
"Beyond the scholarship on specific themes or geographic areas, each chapter does an excellent job of locating the lived experiences in particular places within the overall context of empire. The book offers a strong refutation of the idea that postmodern empires are uniform or deterritorial. Its strength is the methodology of placing peoples’ ideas and actions within the wider context of global forces." -- Lanny Thompson * New West Indian Guide *
"These essays raise important questions not always broached by historians, particularly the consequences and materiality of rumor, conspiracy, epistemology, and neoliberalism. The volume will be useful for students and scholars of U.S. empire, and it encourages interdisciplinary conversations between historians and anthropologists." -- Jana Kate Lipman * Journal of American History *
"Engaging emerging, multidisciplinary conversations across anthropology, American studies, and postcolonial studies about how empire operates and endures,
Ethnographies of U.S. Empire is a reflection both on empire and on ethnography. Together, the chapters make a case for ethnographic research as a way of studying empire, as a method that offers not a bounded or concise definition of what makes an empire, but rather an expansive sense of how people live with and within the imperial present." -- Emma Shaw Crane * Society & Space *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: Ethnography and U.S. Empire / John F. Collins and Carole McGranahan 1
I. Settlement, Sentiment, Sovereignty
1. The "Affects" of Empire: (Dis)trust among Osage Annuitants / Jean Dennison 27
2. Milking the Cow for All It's Worth: Settler Colonialism and the Politics of Imperialist Resentment in Hawaiʻi / J. Kēhaulani Kauanui 47
3. Sovereignty, Sympathy, and Indigeneity / Audra Simpson 72
II. Colonialism by Any Other Name
4. A School of Addicts: The Coloniality of Addiction in Puerto Rico / Adriana María Garriga-López 93
5. Inhabiting the Aporias of Empire: Protest Politics in Contemporary Puerto Rico / Melissa Rosario 112
6. Training for Empire?: Samoa and American Gridiron Football / Faʻanofo Lisaclaire Uperesa 129
7. Exceptionalism as a Way of Life: U.S. Empire, Filipino Subjectivity, and the Global Call Center Industry / Jan M. Padios 149
III. Temporality, Proximity, Dispersion
8. In Their Place: Cottica Ndyuka in Moengo / Olívia Maria Gomes da Cunha 173
9. Shifting Geographies of Proximity: Korean-led Evangelical Christian Missions and the U.S. Empire / Ju Hui Judy Han 194
10. Sites of the Postcolonial Cold War / Heonik Kwon 214
11. Time Standards and Rhizomatic Imperialism / Kevin K. Birth 227
IV. Military Promises
12. Islands of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Ethnography of U.S. Empire / David Vine 249
13. Domesticating the U.S. Air Force: The Challenges of Anti-Military Activism in Manta, Ecuador / Erin Fitz-Henry 270
14. The Empire of Choice and the Emergence of Military Dissent / Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Lutz 291
V. Residue, Rumors, Remnants
15. Locating Landmines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone / Eleana Kim 313
16. Love and Empire: The CIA, Tibet, and Covert Humanitarianism / Carole McGranahan 333
17. Trust Us: Nicaragua, Iran-Contra, and the Discursive Economy of Empire / Joe Bryan 350
18. Empire as Accusation, Denial, and Structure: The Social Life of U.S. Power at Brazil's Spaceport / Sean T. Mitchell 369
VI. 9/11, The War on Terror, and the Return of Empire
19. Radicalizing Empire: Youth and Dissent in the War on Terror / Sunaina Maria 391
20. Deporting Cambodian Refugees: Youth Activism, State Reform, and Imperial Statecraft / Soo Ah Kwon 411
21. Hunters of the Sourlands: Empire and Displacement in Highland New Jersey / John F. Collins 431
22. From Exception to Empire: Sovereignty, Carceral Circulation, and the "Global War on Terror" / Darryl Li 456
Afterword. Disassemblage: Rethinking U.S. Imperial Formations / Ann Laura Stoler in conversation with Carole McGranahan 477
Bibliography 491
Contributors 539
Index 541
