Tortured Benevolence:

The Philippine-American War, 1898 – 1902

 

 

The Philippine-American War of 1898 to 1902, also known as the Philippine Insurgency, encompassed instances of extreme patriotic fervor and intense brutality, founded on misunderstanding and miscommunication between the United States and the native revolutionary forces of the Philippines. In many ways this relationship followed the expected phases of a classical colonial conflict. Nevertheless, critical aspects of Insurgency historiography remain in dispute today because those same strong emotions and misunderstandings survive in current times. Consequently these differences reveal themselves in ideological variations among American historians, as well as in strong nationalist perspectives between Americans and Filipinos. The purpose of this study is to investigate those continuing differences. Read more

Freud at the Movies: Psychoanalyzing Early Responses to

Alfred Hitchcock’s

Suspicion (1941) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

 

 

Alfred Hitchcock, a movie director alleged by many to have been driven by psychological demons and suppressed desires, made dozens of films over his long career. Although he began directing in England, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 when David O. Selznick signed him to a seven-year contract. There he made several films which critics claim reveal his personal obsession with psychoanalytic interpretations. Freudian psychoanalysis was a widely-discussed social topic during this period, and film critics – then as now – frequently interpret film using psychoanalytical language. Although the general public remains largely indifferent to the fine points of Freudian and Jungian analysis, critics are not. Consequently, an examination of the critical response to two of Hitchcock’s most successful films reveals how his depictions of hidden emotions and phobias have been mined for psychological implications. Read more

Invisible Heroes: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and American Culture

 

“Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.”    ~ Ernest Hemingway, On the American Dead in Spain[1]

 

There is a hole in American culture. We are a people who reverently mythologize the lone band of idealistic heroes, defending justice against powerful odds. Any high-school student knows the Minutemen, the defenders of the Alamo, and the 7^th Infantry at Pork Chop Hill. But we intentionally exclude a heroic group of our countrymen from our cultural memory.

In 1936, a small contingent of 2600 idealistic Americans traveled to Spain to join in the fight against Franco’s Falange and Hitler’s Nazis. These ‘premature antifascists’ struggled against the same brutal ideology that millions of their countrymen would oppose just a few years later. Nevertheless, the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade would be constrained from fighting in World War Two, and during the McCarthy years they would face public ridicule and government persecution. Their heroic story would only rarely be told, and when it was – as in Earnest Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls – the Brigade itself would denounce the depiction. The reasons for this disregard are rooted in the Brigade’s own intransigent attitudes and in America’s inability to recognize idealism in a Marxist context. Read more

Absent Players Choose the Victors

             Within the space of thirty years, two able commanders fought battles that determined the fate of their respective countries. Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his rival at Sekigahara in 1600 and thereafter created a Japanese shogunate that would last for over 250 years. Gustavus Adolphus defeated the forces of the Holy Roman Empire at Breitenfeld in 1631 and thereby assured that Protestantism would survive on mainland Europe. Both commanders used mixed forces, mobility, and new military technology in their battles. Nevertheless, it was the startling removal from the battlefield of key fighting units that transformed probable defeat into victory. Read more

In Pursuit of Folly: War and American Society in the 21^st Century

 

Human violence has myriad forms – domestic (wife beating), accidental (car wrecks), voluntary (soccer), spectator (professional sports) – the list is extensive. War is one highly specialized kind of human violence. Individuals do not make war, but socio-political entities like tribes and states do.  What is the relationship then, between war and society, and what implications does this relationship have for citizens of the United States in the 21^st century? Three books published during the past five years present perspectives on these questions. Chalmers Johnson (The Sorrows of Empire), Andrew J. Bacevich (The New American Militarism) and Jeremy Scahill (Blackwater), as well as a recent documentary film (Why We Fight) attempt to assess the meaning of war within the context of contemporary America. Their assessment is ultimately unsatisfying. We are forced to search for a more comprehensive point of view, and to propose rules to govern America’s use of war as a national policy. Read more