American Exceptionalism in the Age of Globalization
The Specter of Vietnam
- 342 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
In American Exceptionalism in the Age of Globalization, William V. Spanos explores three writersâGraham Greene, Philip Caputo, and Tim O'Brienâwhose work devastatingly critiques the U.S. intervention in Vietnam and exposes the brutality of the Vietnam War. Utilizing poststructuralist theory, particularly that of Heidegger, Althusser, Foucault, and Said, Spanos argues that the Vietnam War disclosed the dark underside of the American exceptionalist ethos and, in so doing, speaks directly to America's war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11. To support this argument, Spanos undertakes close readings of Greene's The Quiet American, Caputo's A Rumor of War, and O'Brien's Going After Cacciato, all of which bear witness to the self-destruction of American exceptionalism. Spanos retrieves the spectral witness that has been suppressed since the war, but that now, in the wake of the quagmire in Iraq, has returned to haunt America's post-9/11 "project for the new American century."
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Table of contents
- American Exceptionalism in the Age of Globalization
- CONTENTS
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- 1. HISTORY AND ITS SPECTER: Rethinking Thinking in the Post-Cold War Age
- 2. ALTHUSSERâS âPROBLEMATICâ: Vision and the Vietnam War
- 3. WHO KILLED ALDEN PYLE?The Oversight of Oversight in Graham GreeneâsThe Quiet American
- 4. RETRIEVING THE THISNESS OF THE VIETNAM WAR: A Symptomatic Reading of Philip CaputoâsA Rumor of War
- 5. âTHE LAND IS YOUR ENEMYâ: Tim OâBrienâs Going After CacciatoIn remembrance of the exilic life of Edward W. Said
- 6. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM,THE JEREMIAD, AND THE FRONTIER,BEFORE AND AFTER 9/11: From the Puritans to the Neo-Con Men
- 7. CONCLUSION: The Vietnam War, 9/11, and Its Aftermath
- NOTES
- INDEX