Soldiers of misfortune
Subtitle: the New Right's culture war and the politics of political correctness
By: Valerie L. Scatamburlo.
Series: Counterpoints ;; v. 25; Counterpoints (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 25.
Publisher: Peter Lang; Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Peter
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
Subjects: Conservatism -- United States.; Political correctness -- United States.; Education -- Social aspects -- United States.; Culture conflict -- United States.
Description: In Soldiers of Misfortune, Valerie Scatamburlo provides the first systematic account of the political correctness phenomenon.

The author contends that the New Right's campaign against P.C. must be understood contextually, as part of the conservative movement's broader "war of position." She traces the historical genealogy of the contemporary New Right; the network of corporate-sponsored funding undergirding their anti-P.C. assault; and examines the mainstream media's complicity in propagating anti-P.C. rhetoric. Scatamburlo, however, challenges the notion that the P.C. ethos is merely a myth concocted by the New Right and addresses some of the disturbing tendencies in contemporary Left theory and politics. She locates the P.C. phenomenon theoretically and politically between the linguistic turn in social theory and the rise of identity politics.

Claiming that P.C. is, in many ways, a form of pseudoradicalism, the author argues that progressive intellectuals must move beyond the edicts of P.C., the narrowness of identity politics, and the excesses of postmodernism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-261) and index.