Description
Book SynopsisThe Iraq war has produced profound changes within the United States, changes manifested by popular discontent with the war. On one hand, U.S. culture finds its own ideological reflection in the Iraq war; on the other hand, U.S. media repeatedly critique the social and political forces that produce the war. These multiple and contradictory assessments have been characterized by intensified imagery and narratives, an escalation that is in part a function of the new communications technologies used to generate them. This book examines the images and stories emerging from the Iraq war, from video games that retell its battles, the representations of Arab people in American film history, and U.S. war documentaries, to parody and memoir and photographs from Abu Ghraib.
Trade Review«As the Iraq war ‘ends’ for most people in the U.S., it disappears from discourse – other than in terms of troop suffering. But for millions of people, the war cannot conclude so easily. If acts of ghastly hubris like this one are to be avoided in future, it will be as a result of our understanding Iraq war cultures. The editors and authors have done a marvelous job in excavating the horror of American empire. And despite our belligerent history, books like this one show that another America can come into being.» (Toby Miller, Author of ’Makeover Nation’)
«This is a smart and provocative volume that navigates a broad path through the cultural noise that is the war in Iraq. In subjects ranging from Abu Ghraib to video games to shopping as a response to war, these essays collectively construct an analytical frame for recognizing the complex economic, social, and political forces at work in the performance that is the Iraq war in U.S. culture.» (Susan Jeffords, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Washington, Bothell)
«As the Iraq war ‘ends’ for most people in the U.S., it disappears from discourse – other than in terms of troop suffering. But for millions of people, the war cannot conclude so easily. If acts of ghastly hubris like this one are to be avoided in future, it will be as a result of our understanding Iraq war cultures. The editors and authors have done a marvelous job in excavating the horror of American empire. And despite our belligerent history, books like this one show that another America can come into being.» (Toby Miller, Author of ’Makeover Nation’)
«This is a smart and provocative volume that navigates a broad path through the cultural noise that is the war in Iraq. In subjects ranging from Abu Ghraib to video games to shopping as a response to war, these essays collectively construct an analytical frame for recognizing the complex economic, social, and political forces at work in the performance that is the Iraq war in U.S. culture.» (Susan Jeffords, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Washington, Bothell)
Table of ContentsContents: Cynthia Fuchs/Joe Lockard: Introduction: «Shrapnel throughout the Body»: U.S. War Culture and Iraq – Patrick Brantlinger: Shopping on Red Alert: The Rhetorical Normalization of Terror – Leanne McRae: Memory, Meaning, and Mass Destruction – Murray Pomerance: Bagdad Bad – Anna Froula: «America, Fuck Yeah!»: Patriotic Puppetry in
Team America: World Police – Tony Perucci: Fight or Fuck: Performing Neoliberalism at Abu Ghraib – David Clearwater: «Zap the Iraqoids»: War, Video Games, and Perception Management – Cynthia Fuchs: «You Just Want Stories»: Iraqi Subjects, American Documentaries – Zoe Trodd/Nathaniel Nadaff-Hafrey: «George, They Were Only Movies»: The Vietnam Syndrome in Iraq War Culture – Stephanie Athey: The Torturer’s Tale: Tony Lagouranis in Mosul and the Media – Henry Giroux: From Auschwitz to Abu Ghraib: Rethinking Adorno’s Politics of Education.
