Neo-Roosevelt, or Why Post-Colonialism Is Premature - Annotated Bibliography Example

Trombold, John. "Neo-Roosevelt, or Why Post-Colonialism Is Premature." Interventions: The International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 7 (2005 199-215 November 21, 2008 The source is an essay reprinted with permission from the University of Oregon, and is a scholarly source, documented and cited very well. The essay is informative in nature and is meant to further expose the reader to the idea of American Imperialism and how it was so effectively used when American needed a reason to push hard for westward expansion. Trombold attempts to tear down the ethnocentric idea of American Exceptionalism, by studying what a false, exceedingly harmful and historically inaccurate ideal it really was. The International Journal of Postcolonial Studies releases a journal entitled Interventions, which is published by Routledge,Co., Routledge is a subsidiary publisher of Taylor and Francis Group, the oldest Literary Journal in the world. John Trombold is a multiple contributor, and uses this essay to attack the American concepts of Manifest Destiny. The work is a public plea calling for Americans to educate themselves as to the reasoning behind constant war waging. The source is recent, published in 2006, and poignantly reviews historical facts from the American World Wars up to and including our current military occupation in Iraq, and Afghanistan. This resource would not be a significant contributor to an essay on Mark Twains work, "The War Prayer." The majority of the content is given to out of date American political policy as it was created by Theodore Roosevelt. Trombold attacks Roosevelt for openly lying to the public about the need for a war and for using the American peoples trust to futher his own financial gains. The source neither supports nor weakens Mark Twain's "The War Prayer." The essay asks the American reader of 2008 to think instead how our foreign policies should differ from that of Roosevelt's traditional war hungry America. Zmijewski, David. "The Man in Both Corners: Mark Twain the Shadowboxing Imperialist." Hawaiian Journal of History 40 vol. 40 (2007): 55-73. November 20, 2008 In this critical analysis of Mark Twain essays, author David Zmijeski details how Twain was commissioned by the American Government as a political, and literary advocate in favor of America's attempts to annex and acquire the Sandwich Islands. The article gives a detailed account of exactly how/why/when Mark Twain openly supported the idea of increasing trade and acquiring land from Hawaii, and mainland China. This article is scholarly in nature, written exclusively for the Hawaiian Journal of History, and republished with permission in 2007. The Journal began in 1967 and publishes articles and essays exclusively about the history and legacy of the Pacific Islands. Zmijewski bases his essay on factual correspondence written by Mark Twain to the American government about the Polynesian and Sandwich Islands. Mark Twain is quoted often as adamantly advocating for less military and political American presence around the world, yet Zmijewski displays for the reader multiple correspondences in which Twain supports the opening of free trade with the Hawaiian Islands and calls for an American Military presence of some sort. The Hawaiian Journal releases the records and Zmijewski uses Twain's own writing to contradict his longtime opposition of American foreign involvement. This particular article would be of great interest and support to a paper on Mark Twain's the War Prayer. It is one of the few works that documenting the hidden dichotomy between what Twain privately believes in and what he asks the American public to believe. The great American master is caught denouncing Westward Expansion on one hand while simultaneously calling for financial and military support to acquire Hawaii on the other. Caplan, David. "That Grotesque and Laughable Word": Rethinking Patriotism in Time of War." Virginia Quarterly Review 83 (2007): 139-51. November 20th 2008. This journal article by David Caplan appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and was intended for the modern American literati to read about and then subsequently question the word Patriotism. The article itself defines American Patriotism four or five different ways, spanning over 150 years of Manifest Destiny. The article refers to contemporary political powers, famous artists and military leaders as they attempt to define and redefine Patriotism, as it suites their political interests at the time. The Virginia Quarterly review is an award winning journal published by the University of Virginia, and attempts to display literary works on politics, society and nature. Caplan has published there multiple times and uses this particular essay to comment on how America has lost its way as far as foreign policy is concerned. The article calls for the strict scrutinizing of past military failures and reasons for the initial occupation and invasion of those countries we warred against. The source is current and can effortlessly be applied to American foreign policy as near as 2008. Caplan is an outspoken advocate of Anti-War America, and this particular source draws no specific conclusions about what to implement as far as military or political reform goes. The work begs rather, that the reader reflect on past militaristic and political action and come to terms with the historical truths and real reasons for the validity of American wars. The source is amazingly well documented and cited, and would be a valuable resource when writing an essay on Mark Twains "The War Prayer." The article supports an utterly pessimistic Twain as he calls for social, financial, and political reform of the Nation. However the essay is vague in its association with Twain and his feelings on the Nation vs. Christianity. The work does not tie in to how severely Twain advocated for separation of church and state. Sloan, Gary. "A Connecticut Yankee in God's Court." Skeptic 8.4 (2001): 86-9. November 20th 2008. "AYankee in God's Court" was intended to shed light on Mark Twain's little publicized private and personal political beliefs. This source documents Twain's stance on organized religion, namely Christianity, and American politics as told by Twain through a series of written correspondences with close personal friends and family. It strongly supports the notion of Science and Discovery over Religion. This article was published in the quarterly science education and science advocacy magazine Skeptic. Skeptic is owned and published internally by the American Skeptics Society. The Skeptic is a journal dedicated to exploration of the natural world as it is explained through applied science. Gary Sloan never claims the opinions of Twain as recalled by his friends and family to be factual. The work attempts instead to draw a direct correlation between the iconic image of Mark Twain as an American genius, and that genius believing whole heartedly in Science over Religion This source is an excellent reference for an essay about "The War Prayer." More than any other source it exposes the ferocity with which Mark Twain repeatedly attacks the allegorical tales of the Bible and Christianity. The paper is a scathing article showing an angry and despondent Twain writing to friends and family condemning God and the Bible as far, far inferior to Science and the physics of Astrology. The Article parallels well "The War Prayer" in its acidic tone and outright anger towards the "excuse" that is religion. Woods, Thomas E. "The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire." Ludwig von Mises Institute. 15 Dec. 2006. 12 Oct. 2008 http://mises.org/story/2408 November 22, 2008 This source is academic in nature and in it Thomas Woods addresses the formation and causation of the American Anti-Imperialist League. Woods eagerly provides multiple examples of why the league felt the need to try and stop America from becoming an Imperialistic world power. The article keys in on the post-Spanish-American War treatment of the Philippine Islands and its people. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is dedicated to advancing the "Scholarship of Liberty," and claims to be a classically liberal publication exposing liberal theory. Thomas E Woods has contributed numerous times to the publication, and is also the ongoing author of "Church and the Market," a news publication dealing with Catholicism and religious reasoning in defense of a free world economy. This source is an outstanding in that it reflects on the American Anti-Imperialist League by using a few of the famous member's own literary works to elucidate the problems of world power. Mark Twain happens to be a long time member and outspoken advocate for the Anti-Imperialist League. In fact Twain's "The War Prayer" is quoted ad nauseum throughout Thomas Woods' critical essay. Many of the historical reasons, both political and factual behind the need for forming the League influenced the writing of Twain's "The War Prayer" are contained within this essay. Atwood, Paul L. "War IS the American Way of Life." New England Journal of Public Policy 19.1 (2003): 179-99. Read More