Overview

In this thoughtful and timely consideration of the nature of American power and empire, Anthony Bogues argues that America's self-presentation as the bastion of liberty is an attempt to force upon the world a single universal truth, which has the objective of eradicating the radical imagination. Central to this project of American supremacy is the elaboration and construction of a language of power in which a form of self-government appears as the form of sovereignty. Grappling with issues of power, race, slavery, violence, and the nature of postcolonial criticism and critical theory, Bogues offers reconsiderations of the writings of W. E. B. DuBois and Frantz Fanon in order to break holes in this accepted structure of empire. At its heart this is a work of radical humanistic theory that seeks to glean from the postcolonial world and empire an alternative to its imperial form of freedom.

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9781584659310

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symplok

I was impressed by Bogues's determination to set out an independent, radical political response to the reality of American hegemony a project that consumed so much of C.L.R. James's working life. (It is worth noting that Bogues is also the author of a study of James's political thought, Caliban's Freedom (1997)). This dissection of empire is as ambitious in its way as The Black Jacobins, and though it is not quite as readable, and certainly not for the intellectually faint-hearted, it raises many of the same questions in a timely and provocative way. The Caribbean Review of Books

By naming America an empire of liberty, Bogues compels American studies to come to terms with the force of American slavery in relation to broader forces of global American imperialism. symplok

""An independent, radical political response to the reality of American hegemony. . . . This dissection of empire is as ambitious in its way as The Black Jacobins.""-- ""The Caribbean Review of Books"" ""By naming America 'an empire of liberty, ' Bogues compels American Studies to come to terms with the force of American slavery in relation to broader forces of global American imperialism.""-- ""symplok ""

I was impressed by Bogues's determination to set out an independent, radical political response to the reality of American hegemony--a project that consumed so much of C.L.R. James's working life. (It is worth noting that Bogues is also the author of a study of James's political thought, Caliban's Freedom (1997)). This dissection of empire is as ambitious in its way as The Black Jacobins, and though it is not quite as readable, and certainly not for the intellectually faint-hearted, it raises many of the same questions in a timely and provocative way. --The Caribbean Review of Books

Author Information

ANTHONY BOGUES is Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. He is the author of numerous books, including Black Heretics and Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals.

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