Ending America’s War with Itself
Eppard & Giroux
Ending America’s War with Itself: A Conversation with Henry Giroux. Lawrence M. Eppard1 and Henry A. Giroux2 1 2
Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA, USA McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, CA
Lawrence Eppard email: leeppard@ship.edu Henry Giroux email: girouxh@mcmaster.ca Received September 4, 2019 Accepted for publication October 4, 2019 Published November 12, 2019 Publication Type: Book Review Preferred Citation: Eppard, Lawrence, and Henry Giroux. 2019. “Ending America’s War with Itself: A Conversation with Henry Giroux.” Sociation, 18(2): 29-36.
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Introduction The United States finds itself at a crossroads, facing several social problems that require new and urgent responses. Whether it is the threat posed by climate change, growing economic inequality, mass incarceration, persistent racial inequality, the inhumane treatment of immigrants, the gender pay gap, the student loan debt crisis, or any other pressing social issues, the status quo cannot hold for much longer. Young Americans coming of age today seem less inclined to stand for complacency than many of their predecessors, and their futures and the future of our democracy demand our commitment to bold new approaches. A number of these topics are central to the work of Lawrence Eppard and Henry Giroux. These themes are frontand-center in America at War with Itself, American Nightmare, and the recently released The Terror of the Unforeseen (all from Henry Giroux), as well as the forthcoming Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality (from Lawrence Eppard, Mark Rank, and Heather Bullock). Additionally, Eppard and Giroux are currently working together on a volume titled On Inequality and Freedom, which explores how a variety of social inequalities unnecessarily constrain many Americans’ agency and freedom. Eppard and Giroux recently sat down for a series of discussions that touched on many of the topics above, as well as other vital issues. The following are highlights from those discussions, edited and arranged for this article.
American Nightmare Lawrence Eppard (LE): Can you talk a little bit about American Nightmare, in terms of what prompted you to write it, your main arguments in the book, etc.? Henry Giroux (HG): I wrote a book on authoritarianism back in 2004, and American Nightmare is an up-to-date extension of that book. I’m certainly not the only one that was beginning to see elements of fascism emerging that were no longer hidden behind the discourse of markets or the false claim to freedom and democracy. I mean, these were all very, very clear. Whether we're talking about ultra-nationalism, white supremacy, calls for racial purity, identifying enemies as a unifying cause, the celebration of the military, the symbolic emphasis on military parades, the expansive military budget, disdain for intellectuals, etc. Increasingly we were seeing elements that were so often on the margins of society move to the centers of power. I mean when you have a president who stands in front of
Sociation, Vol. 18(2), 2019
ISSN 1542-6300
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