After Empire : Myth, Rhetoric, and Democratic Revival

This book probes the mythic underpinnings of U.S. war culture, asking how myth can be reconfigured to foster a discourse more conducive to a culture of peace. It breaks with an imperial mindset of endless warfare and places myth’s creative potential into productive relationship with rhetoric’s democratic vocation to foster an attitude of tolerance and interdependence and resist the violence of alienation. Drawing on the archetype of coyote and manifestations of a people’s better angels, the book examines both the resistance of imperial orthodoxy to critique and susceptibility to cultural change. It locates Barack Obama’s presidency and rhetorical juggling at the threshold of a shifting hemispheric consciousness and explores the prophetic voice of veterans opposed to war, a voice that prefigures the possibility of conversion to a culture of peace. The book culminates in consideration of democracy’s renewal by means of rhetorically adept dissent to enable deliberation amidst conflict.

After Empire chronicles America’s addiction to war-in-the-name-of-peace, wherein the military-industrial complex entwines with crippling national mythologies. Drs. Ivie and Giner argue that by seeing the world as a series of threats, our imaginations have shriveled, leaving us rotating from self-righteous exceptionalism to other-fearing doubts. Moving past that dynamic, the authors plot a "passage to democracy," where the nation grows out of imperial hubris and into mature, deliberative democracy.

Stephen J. Hartnett, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Colorado, Denver

In After Empire: Myth, Rhetoric, and Democratic Revival, Robert L. Ivie and Oscar Giner unpack the way that contemporary American myths of war have played a role in legitimizing war and creating an American empire built around a militarized society. They show that creation of an alternative mythology privileging dissent is essential to rebuilding American democracy. The book is cogently argued, based on groundbreaking research on myth and militarism, and a genuine pleasure to read!

Robert C. Rowland, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas

After Empire　offers both an analysis of contemporary US war culture and an intervention into it in the hope of making the US a healthier democracy. Focusing on the intersection of politics, popular culture, and myth, and deftly integrating theory, method, and substantive content, Ivie and Giner provide a map of the current US public sphere in ways that will interest academics as well as practitioners and prove useful for courses in rhetoric, history, and political science.　

Mary E. Stuckey, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor　of Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park