Feudal America: Elements of the Middle Ages in Contemporary Society

Do Americans live in a liberal capitalist society, where evenhanded competition rules the day, or a society in which big money, private security, and personal relations determine key social outcomes? Vladimir Shlapentokh and Joshua Woods argue that the answer to these questions cannot be found among the conventional models used to describe the nation. Offering a new analytical tool, the authors present a provocative explanation of the nature of contemporary society by comparing its essential characteristics to those of medieval European societies. Their feudal model emphasizes five elements: the weakness of the state and its inability to protect its territory, guarantee the security of its citizens, and enforce laws; conflicts and collusions between and within organizations that involve corruption and other forms of illegal or semilegal actions; the dominance of personal relations in political and economic life; the prevalence of an elitist ideology; and the use of private agents and organizations for the provision of safety and security. Feudal America urges readers to suspend their forward-thinking and futurist orientations, question linear notions of social and historical progression, and look for explanations of contemporary social problems in medieval European history.

History

Shlapentokh, Vladimir

Woods, Joshua

Americas

Penn State University Press

Following the 9/11 attacks on America, the initial 'flood of sympathy' for America's tragedy soon dried up and was followed by a wide range of opinions. The assessments of the events and the actions undertaken by Washington have become increasingly polarized. Some opinion leaders maintained that a sovereign nation has the right to defend itself whereas others deemed the USA a 'cowboy' nation - quick-tempered and bent on unilateralism. Overall, the reactions to the events in the United States and its actions since 2001 revealed an incredible amount of information about the domestic, political and cultural influences that determined support and sympathy as well as criticism and animosity toward the United States and its policies. Scholars representing seven countries are brought together in this exceptional volume to examine the origins of both anti- and pro-American attitudes within the framework of external causes (the actions of the USA abroad) versus internal causes (the domestic political, ideological, cultural, and psychological characteristics of foreign countries). Offering a fresh view of a contemporary issue, the volume is well-suited for class use as a supplementary reader for foreign policy studies, comparative politics, media, political sociology and history.

America: Sovereign Defender Or Cowboy Nation?

Politics & Social Sciences

Shiraev, Eric

Politics & Government

Ashgate Pub. Co

After 9/11, research on the perceived threat of terrorism moved in several directions. Some scholars examined the social construction of terrorism, scrutinizing the political rhetoric and media coverage associated with the threat. Other researchers investigated the public’s elevated worries about terrorism and their effect on public opinion, while still other analysts elucidated the post-9/11 changes in U.S. foreign and domestic policies. In Freaking Out: A Decade of Living with Terrorism, Joshua Woods unites these areas of research, interweaving the sociology and psychology of terrorism, to create a broader and more compelling explanation of how the attacks on 9/11 have changed American society. Offering a concise review of the shifting policy arena in the post-9/11 era, Woods chronicles not only major U.S. government actions, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also less visible changes, such as shifts in immigration policy and the use and abuse of Homeland Security funding by state and local governments. Investigating the public’s response to terrorism, Woods examines the link between media coverage of terrorism and public perceptions of the threat, demonstrating how some news coverage elevates people’s worries more than others. The events of 9/11 influenced the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of public officials, members of the press, and ordinary people. The reactions of these groups are deeply interrelated, but the study of them has remained isolated and compartmentalized across several academic disciplines until now. Demonstrating the virtue of multidisciplinary synthesis, this book advances the growing field of terrorism studies in new directions.

Freaking Out: A Decade of Living with Terrorism

POTOMAC BOOKS

This volume examines the rise of an emerging sport as a grassroots effort (or "new social movement"), arguing that the growth of non-normative sports movements occurs through two social processes: one driven primarily by product development, commercialization, and consumption, and another that relies upon public resources and grassroots efforts. Through the lens of disc golf, informed by the author's experience both playing and researching the sport, Joshua Woods here explores how non-normative sports development depends on the consistency of insider culture and ideology, as well as on how the movement navigates a broad field of market competition, government regulation, community characteristics, public opinion, traditional media, social media and technological change. Throughout, the author probes why some sports grow faster than others, examining cultural tendencies toward sport, individual choices to participate, and the various institutional forces at play.

Emerging Sports as Social Movements: Disc Golf and the Rise of an Unknown Sport

Social Sciences

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

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