American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability

American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability examines the origins of contemporary American ideas about surveillance, terrorism, and white supremacy by exploring American attachments to the terror of the sublime, the fear of uncertainty, and the anxieties produced by unending racial threat. It challenges conventional approaches and uncovers the hidden logic of insecurity that structures modern approaches to national defense, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 26 September 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

For centuries, Americans have pursued security strategies that often leave them feeling vulnerable, unsafe, and insecure. American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability delves into this paradox by exploring American attachments to the terror of the sublime, the fear of uncertainty, and the anxieties caused by unending racial threats. Challenging conventional approaches that leave questions of security to policy experts, Russ Castronovo turns to literature, philosophy, and political theory to demonstrate how security provides an organizing principle for collective life, enhancing freedom while limiting it. His incisive critique spans 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.

Timely and urgent, American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability 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.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691249858