Constructing the Nation

Mariana Ortega is Professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University. Linda Martín Alcoff is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College, City University of New York. Her many books include Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self and Identity Politics Reconsidered (coedited with Michael Hames-García, Satya P. Mohanty, and Paula M. L. Moya).

• AcknowledgmentsINTRODUCTION: The Race of NationalismMariana Ortega and Linda Martín AlcoffPART 1. FREEDOM 1. Cultural Affirmation, Power, and Dissent: Two Midcentury U.S. DebatesElizabeth Suzanne Kassab2. When Fear Interferes with Freedom: Infantilization of the American Public Seen through the Lens of Post–9/11 Literature for ChildrenKyoo Lee3. Muslim Women and the Rhetoric of FreedomAlia Al-SajiPART 2. UNITY 4. Faith in Unity: The Nationalist Erasure of MultiplicityMaría Lugones and Joshua M. Price5. Muslim Immigrants in Post–9-11 American Politics: The "Exception" Population as an Intrinsic Element of American LiberalismFalguni A. Sheth6. Situating Race and Nation in the U.S. Context: Methodology, Interdisciplinarity, and the Unresolved Role of Comparative InquiryMindy Peden7. Citizenship and Political Friendship: Two Hearts; One PassportEduardo MendietaPART 3. HOMELAND 8. On the Limits of Postcolonial Identity PoliticsNamita Goswami9. Theorizing the Aesthetic Homeland: Racialized Aesthetic Nationalism in Daily Life and the Art WorldMonique RoelofsList of ContributorsName IndexSubject Index

"The idealized and abstract nation-state may be a familiar topic for political investigation, but the actual white nation and its racial state are territory far less explored. This stimulating set of essays—ranging from a reading of post-9/11 children's literature to an analysis of the racialized aesthetic of white nationalism—provides a valuable and eye-opening introduction to the racial construction of the American polity." — Charles W. Mills, author of The Racial Contract"A smart and unique set of theoretical reflections on the constitutive role of race and ethnicity in the post-9/11 U.S. American political imaginary, this book should find its place on the bookshelves of everyone interested in questions of citizenship and belonging in a multiracial U.S. polity." — Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity