America and the Politics of Insecurity

by Andrew Rojecki

Overview

An innovative analysis of polarized politics post-9/11.

In America and the Politics of Insecurity, Andrew Rojecki assesses the response of citizens and politicians to a series of crises that confronted the United States during the first decade of the twenty-first century. This period brought Americans face to face with extraordinarily difficult problems that were compounded by their origin in seemingly uncontrollable global forces. Rojecki establishes a theoretical framework for understanding how these new uncertainties contribute to increasingly polarized political discourse.

Analyzing three domains of American insecurity—economic, environmental, and existential—Rojecki examines responses to the Great Recession by groups like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street; considers why the growing demand for fossil fuels makes people disregard global warming; and explores the desire for security measures that restrict personal freedom in the age of terrorism. Ultimately, he explains why the right has thus far held an edge over the left in the politics of insecurity.

Rojecki concludes that in order to address these broad-scale political problems, we must reframe domestic issues as reactions to undiagnosed global conditions. Bringing the psychology of uncertainty together with contemporary case studies, this book is a sweeping diagnostic for—and antidote to—ineffective political discourse in a globalized world that imports bads as well as goods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421419602
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2016
Series:	Themes in Global Social Change
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Rojecki is an associate professor of communication at the University of Illinois–Chicago. He is the author of Silencing the Opposition: Antinuclear Movements and the Media in the Cold War and the coauthor of The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Acknowledgments xi

1 Globalization and Insecurity 1

2 Uncertainty Interests, and Identity 26

3 Unknown Unknowns: 9/11 and the Dark Side of Globalization 56

4 American Exceptionalism and Post-9/11 Foreign Policy 80

5 Climate Change and the Flood 105

6 Porosity and Paradox: Global Cities and the Illegal Immigration Debate 129

7 Reaction from the Right: Tea Party Politics 159

8 Reactions from the Left: Global Justice and Occupy Wall Street 178

9 The New Normal and the Limits of Insecurity 205

References 213

Index 233

What People are Saying About This

Robert M. Entman

This is a vital book for understanding the dysfunctional dynamics of 21st century American politics. Rojecki brings an extraordinarily wide range of ideas and data together to explain the effects of globalization and its attendant insecurities on domestic politics. The book is creative, innovative, beautifully written, provocative and surprising. It will become a classic of political science, communication and sociology, and with any luck could actually help Americans see their way through to a more secure and rational future.

Simon Cottle

Climate change and environmental despoliation, financial meltdowns and increased poverty, asymmetric warfare and terror—these, are just some of the crises spawned by today’s globally interconnected, inegalitarian world. They represent the dark side of globalization. Andrew Rojecki shines a much-needed torch on how the politics of insecurity produced by such crises are played out in contemporary America. Incisive, erudite, highly recommended.

Clarence Y. H. Lo

Clearly and engagingly written, this book will lend itself to course adoption while appealing to a broad and multidisciplinary audience of scholars and general readers.

Deirdre N. McCloskey

Rojecki’s elegant and deeply researched book shows how to do political science about actual people, as against the fantasies of rational-choice theory or the figments of constitutionalism. Interest figures in the media and in politics, but not in the people. Until further notice, terror is the medium and the message.

Regina G. Lawrence

This ambitious, effective book exposes readers to the broader context in which our current political problems are playing out and provokes us to consider why our representatives seem so unable to deal forthrightly with those problems.

From the Publisher

This is a vital book for understanding the dysfunctional dynamics of 21st century American politics. Rojecki brings an extraordinarily wide range of ideas and data together to explain the effects of globalization and its attendant insecurities on domestic politics. The book is creative, innovative, beautifully written, provocative and surprising. It will become a classic of political science, communication and sociology, and with any luck could actually help Americans see their way through to a more secure and rational future.
—Robert M. Entman, George Washington University

Climate change and environmental despoliation, financial meltdowns and increased poverty, asymmetric warfare and terror—these, are just some of the crises spawned by today’s globally interconnected, inegalitarian world. They represent the dark side of globalization. Andrew Rojecki shines a much-needed torch on how the politics of insecurity produced by such crises are played out in contemporary America. Incisive, erudite, highly recommended.
—Simon Cottle, Cardiff University, author of Global Crisis Reporting

Rojecki’s elegant and deeply researched book shows how to do political science about actual people, as against the fantasies of rational-choice theory or the figments of constitutionalism. Interest figures in the media and in politics, but not in the people. Until further notice, terror is the medium and the message.
—Deirdre N. McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago, author of Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World

This ambitious, effective book exposes readers to the broader context in which our current political problems are playing out and provokes us to consider why our representatives seem so unable to deal forthrightly with those problems.
—Regina G. Lawrence, University of Oregon, coauthor of Hilary Clinton's Race for the White House: Gender Politics and the Media on the Campaign Trail

Clearly and engagingly written, this book will lend itself to course adoption while appealing to a broad and multidisciplinary audience of scholars and general readers.
—Clarence Y. H. Lo, University of Missouri, author of Small Property versus Big Government: Social Origins of the Property Tax Revolt

Editorial Reviews

Recommended.
—Choice

From the Publisher

Recommended.

Choice