Blood in the Sand
Subtitle: Imperial Fantasies, Right-Wing Ambitions, and the Erosion of American Democracy
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: September 13, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 207
ISBN-13: 9780813123677
Subjects: POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; World - General; Politics - Current Events; Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; War on Terrorism, 2001-; Politics/International Relations; USA; Government - U.S. Government; Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism; International Relations - General; Democracy; United States
First sentence: Upon first seeing the image of Gandhi, I received an early taste of racism, Eurocentrism, and cheap cynicism.
Description: "Blood in the Sand offers both an incisive analysis and a confrontational critique of America's recent international pursuits and its dominant political culture. Stephen Eric Bronner challenges the notion that everything changed in the aftermath of 9/11. He shows instead how a criminal act served to legitimize political manipulation and invigorate traditional nationalistic enthusiasms for militarism and imperial expansion. Employing his own experiences in the Middle East, Bronner acknowledges - but refuses to overstate - recent progressive developments in the region. He criticizes the neoconservative penchant for unilateral military aggression and debunks the dubious notion of fostering democracy at gunpoint." "While Bronner analyzes authoritarian repression, human rights violations, shrinking civil liberties, and severe socioeconomic inequalities, Blood in the Sand is neither a narrow political diatribe nor a futile exercise in anti-American negativism. The author honors America by condemning the betrayal of the nation's finest ideals by so many of those who, hypocritically or naively, invoke those ideals the most. Bronner sheds new light on those who insist on publicly waving the flag while privately subverting that for which it stands." "Blood in the Sand sounds a clarion call for revitalizing the American polity and reshaping foreign policy along democratic lines. Committed to a political renewal, Bronner urges the American people to recall what is best about their national heritage and the beacon of hope it might offer other countries and other cultures."--Jacket.