{"product_id":"american-insecurity-and-the-origins-of-vulnerability-9780691249858","title":"American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn incisive critique that examines the origins of contemporary American ideas about surveillance, terrorism, and white supremacy\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than three centuries, Americans have pursued strategies of security that routinely make them feel vulnerable, unsafe, and insecure. \u003ci\u003eAmerican Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability\u003c\/i\u003e probes this paradox by examining American attachments to the terror of the sublime, the fear of uncertainty, and the anxieties produced by unending racial threat. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChallenging conventional approaches that leave questions of security to policy experts, Russ Castronovo turns to literature, philosophy, and political theory to show how security provides an organizing principle for collective life in ways that both enhance freedom and limit it. His incisive critique ranges from frontier violence and white racial anxiety to insurgent Black print culture and other forms of early American terror, uncovering the hidden logic of insecurity that structures modern approaches to national defense, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy. Drawing on examples from fiction, journalism, tracts, and pamphlets, Castronovo uncovers the deep affective attachments that Americans have had since the founding to the sources of fear and insecurity that make them feel unsafe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTimely and urgent, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability\u003c\/i\u003e sheds critical light on how and why the fundamental political desire for security promotes unease alongside assurance and fixates on risk and danger while clamoring for safety.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRuss Castronovo\u003c\/b\u003e is the Tom Paine Professor of English and director of the Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include \u003ci\u003eFathering the Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNecro Citizenship\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePropaganda 1776\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50498017198354,"sku":"9780691249858","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b77ff491-861d-4330-b825-07b14c4f648b.jpg?v=1730725637","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/american-insecurity-and-the-origins-of-vulnerability-9780691249858","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}