Real Americans
«Professor Jared Goldstein deftly explores how persons with exclusionary ideologies have claimed that those ideologies are rooted in the same Constitution that other Americans have claimed is committed to realizing the creed laid out in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Real Americans details the history of claims that the Constitution of the United States was designed for white persons, for Protestants, for native-born citizens, or for some combination of the three. An eye-opener and a page-turner on the dark side of American constitutional identity." - Mark A. Graber, regents professor, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
"From the country’s inception, Americans have used the language of constitutional fidelity and devotion not only to reaffirm desirable and civically unifying creedal principles but also to foment exclusionary, divisive, and morally reprehensible values. Racists, ethno- and Christian nationalists, and other illiberal extremists have consistently wrapped themselves in the mantle of the Constitution while casting themselves as the compact’s most loyal defenders. For this reason, we cannot afford to take pious invocations of constitutional faith at face value. Jared Goldstein’s seminal study is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand some of the most disturbing currents of contemporary American politics." - Ken I. Kersch, professor of political science, Boston College, and author of American Political Thought: An Invitation
"Goldstein’s illuminating book does a beautiful job of highlighting the ideological elasticity of the federal US Constitution—the way in which constitutional loyalty has served as a critical bedrock for a wide variety of American nationalisms. Through a series of compelling case studies, Real Americans focuses especially on exclusionary and illiberal forms of national belonging that have been encased in constitutional rhetoric. This book is a bracing rejoinder to the more familiar and rosy presentations of American constitutional culture and deserves as broad an audience as possible." - Aziz Rana, Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law, Cornell Law School»
On January 6, 2021, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, and other supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Les mer
In Real Americans: National Identity, Violence, and the Constitution Jared A. Goldstein boldly challenges the conventional wisdom that a shared devotion to the Constitution is the essence of what it means to be American. In his careful analysis of US history, Goldstein demonstrates the well-established pattern of movements devoted to defending the power of dominant racial, ethnic, and religious groups, which deploy the rhetoric of constitutional devotion to express their national visions and justify their violence. Goldstein describes this as constitutional nationalism, an ideology that defines being an American as standing with, and by, the Constitution. This history includes the Ku Klux Klan's self-declared mission to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," which served to justify its campaign of violence in the 1860s and 1870s to prevent Black people from exercising the right to vote; Protestant Americans who felt threatened by the growing population of Catholics and Jews and organized mass movements to defend their status and power by declaring that the Constitution was made for a Protestant nation; native-born Americans who resisted the rising population of immigrants and who mobilized to exclude the newcomers and their alien ideas; corporate leaders arguing that regulation is unconstitutional and un-American; and Timothy McVeigh, who believed he was defending the Constitution by killing 168 people with a truck bomb.
Real Americans: National Identity, Violence, and the Constitution reveals how the Constitution as the central embodiment and common ground of American identity has long been used to promote conflicting versions of American identity and to justify hatred, violence, and exclusion.
Detaljer
- Forlag
- University Press of Kansas
- Innbinding
- Innbundet
- Språk
- Engelsk
- ISBN
- 9780700632831
- Utgivelsesår
- 2022
- Format
- 23 x 15 cm
Anmeldelser
«Professor Jared Goldstein deftly explores how persons with exclusionary ideologies have claimed that those ideologies are rooted in the same Constitution that other Americans have claimed is committed to realizing the creed laid out in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Real Americans details the history of claims that the Constitution of the United States was designed for white persons, for Protestants, for native-born citizens, or for some combination of the three. An eye-opener and a page-turner on the dark side of American constitutional identity." - Mark A. Graber, regents professor, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
"From the country’s inception, Americans have used the language of constitutional fidelity and devotion not only to reaffirm desirable and civically unifying creedal principles but also to foment exclusionary, divisive, and morally reprehensible values. Racists, ethno- and Christian nationalists, and other illiberal extremists have consistently wrapped themselves in the mantle of the Constitution while casting themselves as the compact’s most loyal defenders. For this reason, we cannot afford to take pious invocations of constitutional faith at face value. Jared Goldstein’s seminal study is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand some of the most disturbing currents of contemporary American politics." - Ken I. Kersch, professor of political science, Boston College, and author of American Political Thought: An Invitation
"Goldstein’s illuminating book does a beautiful job of highlighting the ideological elasticity of the federal US Constitution—the way in which constitutional loyalty has served as a critical bedrock for a wide variety of American nationalisms. Through a series of compelling case studies, Real Americans focuses especially on exclusionary and illiberal forms of national belonging that have been encased in constitutional rhetoric. This book is a bracing rejoinder to the more familiar and rosy presentations of American constitutional culture and deserves as broad an audience as possible." - Aziz Rana, Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law, Cornell Law School»