Syllabus for ENG 125: Debating Empire and Globalization

Writing Assignments:

Readings:

Kipling, the White Man's Burden and US Imperialism by the Editors, Monthly Review (Monthly Review , November 2003)

The White Man's Burden, by Rudyard Kipling ( McClure's Magazine, February 1899)

"The White Man's Burden" and Its Critics from Jim Zwick's site about the Anti-Imperialist League active from 1898 to1920. Contains Zwick's introduction to the controversy surrounding the piece and a collection of 50 anti-imperialist responses to Kipling's poem.

To the Person Sitting in Darkness, by Mark Twain (North American Review, February 1901). Twain's amusing polemic about missionaries, the U.S. occupation of the Philippines and imperialism in general.  Asks, "shall we go on conferring our Civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor things a rest?"

Sitting in Darkness: An Unheeded Message About U.S. Militarism, by Jim Zwick, (Baltimore Sun 4/23/95), an essay about the Anti-Imperialism league written for the 20th anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam speech. Includes full text and a downloadable MP3 audio file of King's impassioned condemnation of our war in Vietnam.

The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington (Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993)

The Clash of Ignorance by Edward Said (The Nation 10/4/01)

The New American Century by Arundhati Roy ( The Nation, 1/22/04)

Do Turkeys Enjoy Thanksgiving? by Arundhati Roy (Countercurrents 1/19/04)

The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy (In These Times 4/11/03)

Whither Empire? by Omar Barghouti (Countercurrents 7/30/04)

It's not just the Emperor who's naked, it's the whole Empire by Robert Jensen (Common Dreams, 7/1/04)

U.S. just as guilty of committing its own violent acts by Robert Jensen (Houston Chronicle, 9/14/01)

Against dissent: Why free speech is important as the U.S. drops cluster bombs on Afghanistan by Robert Jensen (Counterpunch, 11/02/01)

The End of Power: Without American hegemony the world would likely return to the dark ages by Niall Ferguson ( The Wall Street Journal, 6/21/04)

The Reluctant Empire by Niall Ferguson (Hoover Digest, Summer 2004)

Why they Hate Us by Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek 10/15/01)

How to save the Arab World by Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek 12/24/01)

War Against Women and Women Against War by Nawal El Saadawi, noted Egyptian feminist and political dissident.

America's Empire is an Empire Lite by Michael Ignatieff ( The New York Times 1/10/03)

The Unipolar Moment by Charles Krauthammer (The National Interest, Winter 2002)

Liberal Empire: Assessing the Arguments by Jedediah Purdy,  (Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, Fall 2003)

America's Empire of Bases by Chalmers Johnson (Alternet 1/15/04)

How to Judge Globalism by Amartya Sen (The American Prospect 1/1/02)

U.S.: Procuring the World's Oil by Michael Klare (Foreign Policy in Focus 4/28/04)

The New Geopolitics by Micheal Klare (Monthly Review, July/August 2003)

The Two Wings of the Eagle by William Tabb (Monthly Review, July/August 2003)

US Weakness and the Struggle for Hegemony by Immanuel Wallerstein(Monthly Review, July/August 2003)

The Moral Myth by George Monbiot (The Guardian, 11/2703)

Homeland Imperialism: Fear and Resistance by Bernardine Dohrn (Monthly Review, July/August 2003)

Against Empire Chapter 3: Intervention: Whose Gain? Whose Pain?  by Michael Parenti

How to Sell a War by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (In These Times 8/4/03)

1958-1991, Iraq: A Classic Case of Divide and Conquer by Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general and peace activist.

Middle East Time Line by Stephen Shalom, chronicles the history of U.S. policy towards and intervention in the Middle East.

Continuity and Change in Two Turn of the Century Wars by Stephen Shalom. Compares U.S. war on Iraq with the Spanish American war of 1898.

Rebuilding America's Defenses-- September 2000 report published by the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century and authored by many of the current Bush administration's leading foreign policy and military officials. Makes a fairly unapologetic case for vigorous imperialist incursions around the globe.

The National Security Strategy of the United States of America-- Shows the clear influence of neoimperialist ideology. 

Report from the National Energy Policy Development Group-- The end result of Dick Cheney's secretive, corporate-dominated energy policy commission. Contains some frank admissions about why we really invaded Iraq. That's right, it was all about the oil.

Globalization: Threat or Opportunity-- A briefing paper from the International Monetary Fund justifying "free trade" and arguing that when third world countries allow multinational capital to control their economies it has no effect at all on "national sovereignty." A nice distillation of neoliberal ideology about the benefits of corporate-driven globalization into a single document.

Class Casualties: Disappearing Youth in the Age of George Bush by Henry Giroux (Workplace, February 2004).

Links:

American Empire Page (Third World Traveler)

A Chronology of U.S. Imperialism -- Detailed chronology of our use of force against other nations.

Hope and Memory -- Adbuster's flash animated history of U.S. interventions, 1801 -2004.

The Economist-- Despite its neoliberal ideology, a solid source of information about international politics, economics and culture.

Toward Freedom-- Magazine that takes a progressive perspective on international affairs.

World Policy Institute-- Think tank focusing on policy solutions to the world's pressing problems. Publishes the always enlightening World Policy Journal.

PNAC Info-- Monitoring the Project for the New American Century and its plans for global domination.

James Petras essays-- Scathing critiques of U.S. imperialism in Latin America and around the globe from an unrepentant Che Guevara-loving revolutionary.

Immanuel Wallerstein-- Commentary on politics, economics and world affairs from the guru of "world systems theory."

Electronic Iraq-- News about U.S. occupied Iraq from anti-imperialist, pro-peace perspective.

War Times--Weekly paper covering the "war on terrorism" and its damaging impact on democracy around the world. 

The Anti-Imperialist News Service-- News about U.S. imperialism around the globe. 

Open Democracy-- An online global magazine of culture and politics. Hosts some very interesting discussion forums and sets up rollicking debates on issues of the day between noted intellectuals. Lots of debate about U.S. foreign policy and neo-imperialism.