Adapting to Empire: William H. Taft,Theodore Roosevelt,and the Philippines, 1900–08

Abstract

Following the Spanish-American War of 1898, the USA became a true, European-style imperial power, with overseas colonies populated by diverse peoples with few — if any — connections to American culture and history. The wide-ranging imperial debate that followed 1898 brought two future US presidents firmly to the fore: the New York politician and war hero, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Ohio judge, William H. Taft. This article explores the complex development of these two politicians’ views on the Philippines during this period of imperial rule. Roosevelt began the period as an ardent imperialist and changed his views to reflect a change in US public opinion and strategic concerns. Conversely, Taft began by being a sceptic about US imperialism but ultimately became one of the most ardent retentionists. This article not only charts their paths to convergence and then their subsequent divergence in attitude towards Philippines policy, but also brings to light the much underestimated role that Taft played in keeping Roosevelt from moving the Republican Party away from its policy of retaining control of the islands. Although many historians see Taft as a loyal servant of Roosevelt’s vision for the USA prior to 1909, this article argues that, when it came to the Philippines, Taft was actually the key driver of US policy throughout this period.     

Double binding of Japanese colonialism: trajectories of baseball in Japan,Taiwan, and Korea†

This study explores the historic implications of baseball within the larger processes of constructing modernity under Japanese colonialism by examining the game's regional trajectory, with a focus on its introduction and proliferation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although baseball was initially introduced into the region as a symbol of American modernity, it was spread and popularized by Imperial Japan. By examining the ways that baseball was received and appropriated in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, this study demonstrates that its trajectory reflects not only colonization by both the USA and Japan but resistance that amounted to a double de-colonization against both of these entities. The term ‘double binding’ is heuristically used to illustrate both Japanese imperialism and postcolonial consciousness in its (former) colonies, in which the USA and Japan functioned as a pair of modernizing/imperial forces and as the objects of de-colonization.     

‘So God Made a Farmer’: The US Agrarian Imaginary and the Lived Assemblages of Settlement and Empire

ABSTRACT

In support of the National FFA Organization (formerly, the Future Farmers of America), Ram Trucks declared 2013 the ‘Year of the Farmer.’ Their commemorative Super Bowl commercial featured radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s iconic 1978 speech, ‘So God Made a Farmer.’ This essay interrogates Harvey’s speech and its aestheticization and reception during Super Bowl XLVII in order to trace how U.S. settler colonialism is embodied and recognized, particularly in relation to narratives of the ‘secularization’ of the United States and U.S. political life. It argues that the resolutely Christian visions of social life and selfhood, modes of ethics, and place-making within the nostalgic speech and commercial continue to order and naturalize the interface between heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and U.S. settler colonialism. It also argues that although such religiose forms of relationality are reproduced and amplified in the spectatorship of the Super Bowl, they are imbued with ostensibly secular national and imperial meaning, and thus obfuscated as such. This essay ultimately argues that such religiose invocations of proper relationality – as a node of racialization and the production of power – can shuttle between religious and secular contexts while continuing to encode and reproduce formations of U.S. settler colonialism and imperialism.     

Dilemmas of international social work: paradoxical processes in indigenisation, universalism and imperialism

This article explores current paradoxical processes in inter-national social work concerning the global diffusion of the social work profession's principles, values and practice methods or approaches. Some criticise these activities on the grounds that they are imperialistic. Others advocate strongly for the indigenisation of social work. Still others believe in social work's universality. This article attempts to stimulate debate on, and promote greater understanding of, and mutual respect for, divergent views on these critical questions. It puts forward the notion that culture is an important consideration that enables indigenisation, retains universals yet avoids imperialism.     

论英语语言的"帝国性"及其影响

英语正在疯狂席卷全球,很多语言受到威胁与挑战,甚至濒临消亡.本文就英语迅猛渗透至世界各个角落的原因,相关国家政府的反应,人们的担忧,单语制世界的可能性,多种语言消亡是否是灾难等问题进行了分析与阐述.     

浅议英语语言中的权力话语

语言不仅仅是符号,而且是文化的载体,语言与文化是相辅相成的。在意识形态领域里,英语和汉语中似乎对等的词汇往往内涵迥异,折射出文化背景的冲突,隐藏着语言领域的帝国主义话语霸权。因此,不能再局限于语言内部研究,而应重视蕴涵于文本中的权力话语,要注重培养学生对文化差异的敏感性、宽容性以及处理文化差异的灵活性。现在,不同文化之间的冲撞还是十分激烈的,在文化上消除西方殖民主义的影响、确保我们的文化身份不被曲解,将是一个漫长的过程。     

数字信息化时代国际文化传播的特点及文化弱势国家的对策

文化具有一定的民族性和传播性,并与意识形态紧密相连。在数字信息化时代国际文化传播与交流呈现出新的特点,其主要体现在以发展中国家为代表的弱势国家对西方外来文化从被动接受到主动选择,先进的数字技术成为文化传播的重要媒介,个体的自我意识提升等。这些特点的出现使得西方的文化渗透和文化入侵更加隐蔽。对此,处于文化弱势的国家应增强文化自信,保持文化独特性,加强网络空间的文化生产与传播,以应对国际文化传播的新特点。     

AT WAR

Technological supremacy means that the West can avoid getting up close and personal to kill. Our legacies of imperial power ensure that our wars are fought ‘over there’, and men in post-industrial societies are disassociated from the death embracing culture of the warrior. However, in the aftermath of September 11, we have entered a new era of global militarization – the shadowed world of the War on Terror. It confronts us with the historical changes in men's relationship to war, and how masculinity has been shaped by the processes of formalization and informalization. It opens up a new kind of front, with an enemy who is claimed to be everywhere, and a military-market complex that is denationalizing war in its promotion of a neo-liberal imperialism.     

社会主义核心价值体系与网络文化建设

社会主义核心价值体系是我们党理论创新的又一重要成果，是建设网络文化的思想基础。它的形成是社会主义物质文明发展到一定程度的必然结果。网络文化对社会主义核心价值体系具有双重影响，以社会主义核心价值体系引导网络文化建设可从法律规范、行政监管、行业自律、综合治理等方面着手。     

International research: Ethical imperialism or ethical pluralism? 1

Conflicts have arisen in international research when countries in which research is being carried out lack the ethical rules or mechanisms for review employed in the United States and Europe. It is objected that a requirement to adhere to regulations promulgated by the US government constitutes “ethical imperialism.”; But if researchers in some countries need not be bound by ethical standards widely accepted in the conduct of research, it could open the door to an ethical relativism allowing virtually any standard a country desires to accept. One example is the variations in informed consent, especially in countries that accord lesser importance to the individual than do the US and Europe. A recent controversy centered on a series of placebo‐controlled, HIV/AIDS trials sponsored by the United States and conducted in several developing countries. These trials could not ethically be carried out in the United States because a proven effective treatment exists. Attempts to avoid similar controversies in forthcoming HIV/AIDS vaccine trials have been initiated by the joint United Nations AIDS program, with a process of regional consultations in the countries where the research will be conducted.