Whether rising up from fiery leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro or from angry masses of Brazilian workers and Mexican peasants, anti U.S. sentiment in Latin America and the Caribbean today is arguably stronger than ever. It is also a threat to U.S. leadership in the hemisphere and the world. Where has this resentment come from? Has it arisen naturally from imperialism and globalization, from economic and social frustrations? Has it served opportunistic politicians? Does Latin America have its own style of anti Americanism? What about national variations? How does cultural anti Americanism affect politics, and vice versa? What roles have religion, literature, or cartoons played in whipping up sentiment against 'el yanqui'? Finally, how has the United States reacted to all this? This book brings leaders in the field of U.S. Latin American relations together with the most promising young scholars to shed historical light on the present implications of hostility to the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean. In essays that carry the reader from Revolutionary Mexico to Peronist Argentina, from Panama in the nineteenth century to the West Indies' mid century independence movement, and from Colombian drug runners to liberation theologists, the authors unearth little known campaigns of resistance and probe deeper into episodes we thought we knew well. They argue that, for well over a century, identifying the United States as the enemy has rung true to Latin Americans and has translated into compelling political strategies. Combining history with political and cultural analysis, this collection breaks the mold of traditional diplomatic history by seeing anti Americanism through the eyes of those who expressed it. It makes clear that anti Americanism, far from being a post 9/11 buzzword, is rather a real force that casts a long shadow over U.S. Latin American relations.

Whether rising up from fiery leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro or from angry masses of Brazilian workers and Mexican peasants, anti U.S. sentiment in Latin America and the Caribbean today is arguably stronger than ever. It is also a threat to U.S. leadership in the hemisphere and the world. Where has this resentment come from? Has it arisen naturally from imperialism and globalization, from economic and social frustrations? Has it served opportunistic politicians? Does Latin America have its own style of anti Americanism? What about national variations? How does cultural anti Americanism affect politics, and vice versa? What roles have religion, literature, or cartoons played in whipping up sentiment against 'el yanqui'? Finally, how has the United States reacted to all this? This book brings leaders in the field of U.S. Latin American relations together with the most promising young scholars to shed historical light on the present implications of hostility to the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean. In essays that carry the reader from Revolutionary Mexico to Peronist Argentina, from Panama in the nineteenth century to the West Indies' mid century independence movement, and from Colombian drug runners to liberation theologists, the authors unearth little known campaigns of resistance and probe deeper into episodes we thought we knew well. They argue that, for well over a century, identifying the United States as the enemy has rung true to Latin Americans and has translated into compelling political strategies. Combining history with political and cultural analysis, this collection breaks the mold of traditional diplomatic history by seeing anti Americanism through the eyes of those who expressed it. It makes clear that anti Americanism, far from being a post 9/11 buzzword, is rather a real force that casts a long shadow over U.S. Latin American relations.

This book interrogates the nature of anti-Americanism today and over the last century. It asks several questions: How do we define the phenomenon from different perspectives: political, social, and cultural? What are the historical sources and turning points of anti-Americanism in Europe and elsewhere? What are its links with anti-Semitic sentiment? Has anti-Americanism been beneficial or self-destructive to its "believers"? Finally, how has the United States responded and why? The authors, scholars from a multitude of countries, tackle the potential political consequences of anti-Americanism in Eastern and Central Europe, the region that has been perceived as strongly pro-American.

A beautiful collection of short stories that explores blacks and whites today, Elbow Room is alive with warmth and humor. Bold and very real, these twelve stories examine a world we all know but find difficult to define.
Whether a story dashes the bravado of young street toughs or pierces through the self-deception of a failed preacher, challenges the audacity of a killer or explodes the jealousy of two lovers, James Alan McPherson has created an array of haunting images and memorable characters in an unsurpassed collection of honest, masterful fiction.

The Irish rock band U2, and especially its frontman Bono, are among the most effective activists ever. U2 has convinced wealthy governments to forgive tens of billions of dollars in loans while spreading its activist messages to billions of people, helping save millions of lives. So how did four boys from one of the poorest countries in the West achieve this? Who and what influenced them? What strategies did they use to succeed as much as they did as activists, and how did those strategies change over time? In particular, how did lead singer Bono make the leap into superstar lobbying? And, with so much attention on him, how has he handled critics who have taken to task his work on behalf of developing countries? In The World and U2: One Band's Remaking of Global Activism, Alan McPherson trains a historian's eye on the evolution and influence of the band's activism from its formation in 1976 to its most recent album and concert tour. Throughout its nearly four decades, the band has held up a mirror to the increasing selfishness in the world while at the same time working to fill the void left by those who have abandoned the world's poor to their plight. From raising awareness about war and human rights in the 1980s to engaging in direct action in the 1990s to moving mountains of cash for the planet's poorest in the twenty-first century, the band, and especially Bono, have both raised the bar and set the example for other celebrity activists. But it is also a success that has brought a greater scrutiny to bear on U2's activism and initiated a healthy debate about the merits of Western development aid. The World and U2: One Band's Remaking of Global Activism tells this story of U2's successful storming of the world's philanthropic stage. It will enchant the band's fans, engage its critics, and offer lessons-and warnings-to activists seeking to change things for the better.

Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America's past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the while, McPherson was also writing and publishing nonfiction that stand beside contemporaries such as James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as this collection amply proves. These essays range from McPherson's profile of comedian Richard Pryor on the cusp of his stardom; a moving tribute to his mentor, Ralph Ellison; a near fatal battle with viral meningitis; and the story of how McPherson became a reluctant landlord to an elderly Black woman and her family. There are meditations on family as the author travels to Disneyland with his daughter, on the nuances of a neighborhood debate about naming a street after Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King, and, throughout, those connections that make us most deeply human-including connections between writer and reader. McPherson writes of his early education, "The structure of white supremacy had been so successful that even some of our parents and teachers had been conscripted into policing the natural curiosity of young people. We were actively discouraged from reading. We were encouraged to accept our lot. We were not told that books just might contain extremely important keys which would enable us to break out of the mental jails that have been constructed to contain us." The collection's curator, Anthony Walton, writes, "In his nonfiction, McPherson was often looking for a way 'beyond' the morasses in which Americans find themselves mired. His work is a model of humanistic imagining, an attempt to perform a healing that would, if successful, be the greatest magic trick in American history: to 'get past' race, to help create a singular American identity that was no longer marred by the existential tragedies of the nation's first 400 years. He attempted this profound reimagining of America while simultaneously remaining completely immersed in African American history and culture. His achievement demonstrates that an abiding love for black folks and black life can rest alongside a mastery of 'The King's English' and a sincere desire to be received as an American citizen and participant in democracy. It is time for that imaginative work to be fully comprehended and for this simultaneously American and African American genius to assume a fully recognized place beside the other constitutive voices in our national literature." This is a collection is for any reader seeking a better understanding of our world and a connection to a wise and wickedly funny writer who speaks with forceful relevance and clarity across the decades. On Becoming an American Writer is part of Godine's Nonpareil imprint: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

In 1912 the United States sent troops into a Nicaraguan civil war, solidifying a decades-long era of military occupations in Latin America driven by the desire to rewrite the political rules of the hemisphere. In this definitive account of the resistance to the three longest occupations-in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic-Alan McPherson analyzes these events from the perspective of the invaded themselves, showing why people resisted and why the troops eventually left. Confronting the assumption that nationalism primarily drove resistance, McPherson finds more concrete-yet also more passionate-motivations: hatred for the brutality of the marines, fear of losing land, outrage at cultural impositions, and thirst for political power. These motivations blended into a potent mix of anger and resentment among both rural and urban occupied populations. Rejecting the view that Washington withdrew from Latin American occupations for moral reasons, McPherson details how the invaded forced the Yankees to leave, underscoring day-to-day resistance and the transnational network that linked New York, Havana, Mexico City, and other cities. Political culture, he argues, mattered more than military or economic motives, as U.S. marines were determined to transform political values and occupied peoples fought to conserve them. Occupiers tried to speed up the modernization and centralization of these poor, rural societies and, ironically, to build nationalism where they found it lacking. Based on rarely seen documents in three languages and five countries, this lively narrative recasts the very nature of occupation as a colossal tragedy, doomed from the outset to fail. In doing so, it offers broad lessons for today's invaders and invaded.

In his 1933 inaugural address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated: "In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor-the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others." Later that year, he declared, "The definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed intervention." Why was there a need for Roosevelt to institute the Good Neighbor policy in the Western hemisphere? McPherson answers this question by looking at the United States' military interventions in Latin America, the longest ever US occupations in the Western hemisphere. In his first book, Alan McPherson examined the roots of anti-Americanism in Latin America during the Cuban Revolution, Panama riots, and US intervention in the Dominican Republic from 1958 to 1966 and delving deeply into the impact of the love-hate ambivalence on US foreign relations. In this new book, he moves backwards in time to explore American occupations of Nicaragua (1912-33), Haiti (1915-34), and the Dominican Republic (1916-24). McPherson proposes not only that opposition to U.S. intervention was more widespread than commonly acknowledged but that anti-imperial movements in the Caribbean basin were primarily responsible for bringing about the end of U.S. occupation, rather than domestic concerns such as the Great Depression or the American public's lack of stamina for overseas imperial ventures. Studying the qualities of the resisters-urban and rural, female and male, peasants and caudillos (local strongmen)-and the US Marines who occupied their countries, McPherson forms nuanced understandings of the movements, as well as the support they received from Mexico, Cuba, France, and the United States-and posits that the strength of the resistance led to the about-face in US foreign policy. He also looks at the massive movements of opposition to occupations within the US, especially after the First World War, highlighting the divisions between expansionists, including the US military and Wall Street, and those who wished to respect the autonomy of small nations, including the NAACP and the State Department. This broad and nuanced work serves as a much-needed contribution to transnational history, US history, and Latin American history, while shedding historical light on the resistance to US occupations.

"Indian Battle Sites in Indiana" is a historical guide to the most notable Native and Euro-American military conflicts that took place in the wilds of Indiana during the 1700s and early 1800s. The pages herein are mostly filled with words from those who were there engaged in combat for possession of the land. This regional anthology provides insight into a transitional time of upheaval and contest between two vastly different cultures of the Old and New Worlds.

From the white pine of Maine's' northeastern forests, westward to the yellow hibiscus of Hawaii's Polynesian islands, our states's official botanical symbols are as uniquely diverse as the terrain and character of the 50 states themselves. In this reference book over 200 state botanical symbols are presented with informative text that highlights their adoptive legislation, botanical and social history. Color photo montages add visual interest to the pages. Alan McPherson is a naturalist who resides in northern Indiana and enjoys traveling and learning about the botanical resources our our vast country.

Turning Leaves is a celebration of the colors of autumn in Indiana. The content encourages the reader to open their senses to this fleeting, color-filled transition between summer and winter, when autumn brings picturesque beauty and a magnificence of its own. This regional book includes the science of fall foliage color, a listing of the most colorful trees, shrubs and vines, their distribution and habitat within the Hoosier state, mapped driving and walking tours, photo tips, numerous autumn-related stories, inspirational quotes and color photographs that will help you discover the splendor of fall foliage in Indiana. Everything to do with Indiana's autumn, Turning Leaves is for those who love the annual festival of kaleidoscopic floral beauty, the high point of the year

Throughout Indiana, Hoosiers in increasing numbers are discovering the joys of creating their own private gardens, as well as visiting public gardens; verdant sanctuaries where they often find ideas and inspiration. As we all realilze or should know, spending time in a garden, private or public, can be a rewarding experience of horticultural enrichment, beauty and inner peace. The author, Alan McPherson, has spent considerable time wandering Indiana, seeking out the most outstanding gardens or "botanic gems" whose gates are open to the public. He shares his findings of these Eden-like public retreats in this readable companion guide. The rich array of garden types found in Indiana and neighboring cities include historic, estate, ethnic, educational, commercial, arboretum, conservatory, and pleasure gardens. These public garden settings are designed with international landscape styles that include English, Italian, French, Japanese, American influences and an eclectic mix of several. Brought to life by numerous color photographs and a delighful informative text, this guide book directs readers to Indiana's diverse public gardens with ease.