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Public goods and services are in the news these days, as President Trump and Elon Musk continue their efforts to dismantle American civil society. The administration’s strangulation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) shines a light on the connection between public goods and empire. What do public goods have to do with empire? A LOT, it turns out.
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The relationship of capitalism to modern empire is of paramount importance, but unclear significance. For some, like Hobson and Lenin, empire is the apotheosis of capitalism, its logical and inevitable product and endpoint. For others, like the economist Joseph Schumpeter, capitalism is antithetical to empire, its free markets a solvent of empire’s inherent tyranny. Capitalism is undoubtedly a crucial component of early modern empires, including the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British empires. But vital and dynamic empires existed long before capitalism as we know it. We will continue to explore in detail the relationship between capital and empire, especially in the modern context. For now, let’s register a few broad points about the political economy of empire.
We’ve been discussing frontiers lately, a concept that extends to the cultural realm as well. The American concern with the cultural frontier reached its pinnacle during the early Cold War. Beginning in the late 1940s, as fears of Soviet expansion and then communist military incursions took center stage in the foreign policies of the Western allies, officials in Washington grew increasingly concerned to project an image of U.S. leadership not only as benign, but as reliable and trustworthy. They were aware of traditional stereotypes about American superficiality, impertinence, and unreliability and sought to counter negative stereotypes of America with positive portrayals that would shore up Western morale. We call this effort “public diplomacy,” and the outreach involved multiple U.S. agencies, from the Economic Cooperation Administration, which ran the Marshall Plan and, along with it, what is likely the largest peacetime propaganda effort in human history, to the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the Eisenhower administration. The State Department ran the Fulbright and Foreign Leader exchange programs, the Department of Defense took pains to maintain solid public relations among allied nations, and the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe broadcast to both sides of the Iron Curtain. Of course the CIA got involved as well, with a hand in everything from election manipulation to promoting the work of anti-communist intellectuals.
We often think of style as a kind of literary signature: the punch-you-in-your face brevity of a Hemingway versus the get-lost-in-the-woods prolixity of a Faulkner. Style is certainly a major factor in our enjoyment of fiction, and it undoubtedly plays a role in non-fiction as well. The truthfulness of a poorly-written story cannot overcome its stylistic deficiencies. A well-written and engaging account elevates the experience for your readers.
Style is important in non-fiction, though in most cases our choices are more constrained than in fiction. Because the aims of non-fiction, generally, are to impart meaning in as precise a way as possible (as opposed to fiction, which is freer to aspire to the poetic), the conventions of English-language prose dictate some choices are better than others. For this reason, most publishing houses demand adherence to a style sheet. If you publish a book with a publisher, you will certainly be supplied with a style sheet with which you are expected to conform. This style sheet, likely derived from one of the major guides in use, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, will offer direction about how to conform your prose mechanics. Questions such as capitalization, abbreviation, proper spelling of technical terms, and so forth will generally be answered. Many of these rules are developed to help make your prose more comprehensible, your meaning more precise. By regulating certain choices, style guides take the guesswork out of meaning for writers and readers alike. |
AuthorI am an editor and historian of US history, diplomacy, and international relations. Archives
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Why empire?This blog presents new scholarship on American empire, places the American experience in a broader and global imperial context, explores imperial habits throughout American society and culture, uncovers the imperial connections between the foreign and the domestic, and develops “empire” as a critical perspective.
At least two features in the American experience are clarified through the lens of American empire: First, we better understand persistent social inequities in a nation professing a fundamental commitment to equality. Second, even a cursory glance at American history makes plain the chronic violence at the center of US foreign policy, which frequently mounts or supports bloody military conflict abroad. Empire helps us recognize how and why the United States seems to be constantly at war--including often with itself--with all the foreign and domestic consequences thereof. |
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