In Search of Canadian Political Culture - UBC Press

Paradigm UBC PressPublishers
A Tale of Two Quagmires
Iraq, Vietnam, and the Hard
Lessons of War
Kenneth J. Campbell
Foreword by Richard Falk
There is an important
debate raging about
whether Iraq is becoming
another Vietnam. Those
who deny the similarities
most vociferously are
often those who know
(or remember) the least
about Vietnam. Kenneth
Campbell knows Vietnam
from his thirteen months of
fighting there (he received
a Purple Heart), and years
of political organizing to get the United States out of
the war. Here, Campbell lays out the political process
of getting into, sinking deeper, hitting bottom, and
finally pulling out of the Vietnam quagmire. He traces
the chief lessons of Vietnam, which helped the United
States successfully avoid quagmires for thirty years,
and explains how neoconservatives within the Bush
administration cynically used the tragedy of 9/11 to
override the “Vietnam syndrome” and drag the nation
into a new quagmire in Iraq. In view of where the United
States finds itself today – unable to stay but unable
to leave – Campbell recommends that the country
rededicate itself to the essential lessons of Vietnam:
the danger of imperial arrogance, the limits of military
force, the importance of international and constitutional
law, and the power of morality.
2007, 160 pages, 6 x 9”
1-59451-352-X / 978-1-59451-352-7
paper $24.95 CRO
Beyond the Spectacle
of Terrorism
Global Uncertainty and
the Challenge of the New Media
Henry A. Giroux
Henry Giroux’s essay
awakens us to the ways
new media proliferate
and circulate images
and ideas of terror that
order our lives, pervert
our pedagogy, delimit
our democracy. Recommended
reading for
anyone who wants to
comprehend our times,
our politics, our possibilities.
– David Theo Goldberg, U. of California, Irvine
The emergence of the spectacle of terror as a
new form of politics raises important questions
about how fear and anxiety can be marketed,
how terrorism can be used to recruit people
in support of authoritarian causes, and how
the spectacle of terrorism works in an age
of injustices, deep insecurities, disembodied
social relations, fragmented communities, and
a growing militarization of everyday life. At the
same time, new media such as the Internet, digital
camcorders, and cell phones can be used to
energize sites of resistance, provide alternative
public spheres, pluralize political struggles,
and expand rather than close down democratic
relations.
Contents
Acts of Translation – The Crisis of Democracy in the Age
of Fear – An Introduction
Rethinking the Politics of the Spectacle in the Society
of the Image
Index
2006, 128 pages, 6 x 9”
1-59451-240-X / 978-1-59451-240-7
paper $19.95 CRO
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