American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-imperialism

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    Richard Seymour

    Publisher: Haymarket Books

    Year: 2012

    Format: Paperback

    Size: 298 pages

    ISBN: 9781608461417

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From Mark Twain to the movement against the war in Vietnam, this is the story of ordinary Americans challenging empire.

All empires spin self-serving myths, and in the US the most potent of these is that America is a force for democracy around the world. Yet there is a tradition of American anti-imperialism that exposes this misleading mythology. American Insurgents is a surprising, revelatory history of anti-imperialism in the United States since the American Revolution. It charts the movements against empire from the Indian Wars and the expansionism of the slave South to the Anti-Imperialist League of Mark Twain and Jane Addams. Seymour crafts a lively and transparent explanation of why some of these movements succeeded and others failed. The result is a vital perspective for those organizing antiwar resistance today.

What People Are Saying

ā€œAmerican Insurgents presents an indispensable history of anti-imperialist movements in the United States. . . . Seymour shatters a whole host of standard misconceptions about resistance to overseas adventures, refuting the common portrait of a US public apathetic to the crimes of its government in foreign lands. . . . The book is illuminated by the courageous and inspiring voices of US anti-imperialists, from Frederick Douglass to Muhammad Ali to current opponents of recent US wars in the Middle East.ā€ Michael Schwartz, author, War Without End

ā€œIn these times of international rebellion, [Richard Seymour] has given us a tool with which to build a movement for a more just world, both within and beyond our borders.ā€ Camilo MejĆ­a, author, Road to ar-Ramadi

ā€œIn the tradition of Howard Zinn's A People’s History of the United States and Joe Allen’s Vietnam, Richard Seymour shows that US imperialism has generated significant domestic opposition rooted in grassroots movements for racial, economic, and social justice.ā€ Michael Letwin, founding member, New York City Labor Against the War and Labor for Palestine

Tags: activism ....... anti-imperialism ....... Haymarket Books ....... history ....... Richard Seymour .......