American Blood

A History of Spectacle and Power
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-0-520-43558-2
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

A provocative history of the United States told through blood.Nothing arrests us like blood. It seizes our attention, commanding us to act when it oozes into the open. In its own distinctive fashion, American public life has been tinged red with blood, from the Civil War to John F. Kennedy’s assassination to the AIDS crisis.American Blood reexamines key episodes in US history to reveal blood as a main actor and show how it has profoundly shaped our culture and politics through its troubling appearances. Zooming in on Jackie Kennedy’s red-stained suit or the biomedical bags of plasma unknowingly carrying the deadly HIV virus, we see that blood—as both symbol and substance—has the power to issue warnings, warrant vengeance, declare victimhood or martyrdom, articulate identity and belonging, and more.Matthew Dennis offers a fresh interpretation of our past to argue that blood has done more than stain the nation’s history—it has helped direct it. Blood has proven its ability to convey critical messages with unique authority and intensity, and in this moment of rising political violence, Dennis urges us to pay attention to what it has to say.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dennis, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ContentsList of FiguresIntroduction. “Blood Will Out”: Blood, American Culture, and Public MemoryI. Before the Deluge  1. Bloodlines and Bloodwork: Language, Identity, Redemption, Salvation  2. Before the Deluge: Bloody Shirts Before “the Bloody Shirt”  3. “Dangerous Relics”: The Rendition of Thomas Sims and the Caning of Charles SumnerII. Deluge: Civil War, the Bloody Shirt, and Postbellum Politics  4. The Body and Blood of Abraham Lincoln  5. “Out, Damned Spot!” The Postbellum Bloody ShirtIII. Red Tide: The Embarrassment of Blood Relics  6. Made in a Moment of Sudden Blood: Jackie Kennedy’s Pink Wool Suit  7. Days of Blood: Civil Rights, Assassination, and Jesse Jackson’s Bloody Shirt  8. Milk, Blood, and the AIDS PanicEpilogue. Waiving the Bloody Shirt? The American Art of BloodAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographic EssayIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Matthew Dennis is Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. He is author of four previous books and editor of two more.