American Empire and the Politics of Meaning

“American Empire does provide valuable insight into how colonial elites received and internalized a particular aspect of America’s imperial project.” - William A. Morgan, Latin American Politics and Society
“Julian Go has made a significant contribution to the study of the too rarely examined American empire, and imperial encounters generally, as well as to comparative cultural theory. . . . Go’s study not only creatively employs semiotics, but it is also well informed by the secondary literature and relevant documentary collections.” - Frederick F. Travis,Journal of American History
“Go’s American Empire makes an important contribution to debates over imperialism. . . . [B]y focusing on local experience during U.S. occupation, [Go] places American empire in a global framework. . . . Instead of attempting to internationalize U.S. history by emphasizing novel groups or ideas that Americans encountered abroad, Go turns the table on the debate by delineating how U.S. ideals, signs, and practices affected change and were changed abroad by ‘others.’ For these reasons, I would recommend students of imperialism, cultural theory, postcolonial theory, amongst others, consider adding Go’s American Empire to their reading lists.” - Maureen Mahoney, H-Net Reviews
“Go has developed a brilliant schema for studying and categorizing the political and cultural development of elite politics in Puerto Rico and the Philippines during the early years of American rule.” - LELAND CONLEY BARROWS, Interventions
“An important contribution of this book is the extensive genealogy Go offers of key ideological constructs in the political culture of the governing classes in the U. S., the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. . . . [A]ll students of imperial formations should seriously engage Go’s text as he leads us toward promising and productive lines of inquiry.” - Ileana María Rodríguez-Silva, A Contracorriente
“Julian Go has developed an illuminating examination of elite male political cultures and strategies in Puerto Rico and the Philippines during the first two decades of U.S. colonial rule and military occupation. . . . I welcome Go’s comparison of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. It pushes all of us to think much more along global historical connection, rather than limiting ourselves to fields such as ‘Latin America’ and ‘Asia’ imposed by Cold-War area studies rubrics.” - Eileen J. Findlay, American Historical Review
“American Empire and the Politics of Meaning is the first sustained and deeply comparative study of the histories of the Philippines and Puerto Rico under American colonial rule. It injects a long overdue comparative jolt into both Philippine and Puerto Rican studies.”—Michael Salman, author of The Embarrassment of Slavery: Controversies over Bondage and Nationalism in the American Colonial Philippines
“Empire is rightly at the forefront of contemporary discussion, but the history of American empire is often neglected. In American Empire and the Politics of Meaning, Julian Go brings a rigorous comparison of Puerto Rico and the Philippines into the broader discussion. The book puts cultural sociology to work advancing knowledge of both colonialism and political elites and how these inform transformations in political culture. It deserves wide readership.”—Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences, New York University
“American Empire does provide valuable insight into how colonial elites received and internalized a particular aspect of America’s imperial project.” -- William A. Morgan * Latin American Politics and Society *
“An important contribution of this book is the extensive genealogy Go offers of key ideological constructs in the political culture of the governing classes in the U. S., the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. . . . [A]ll students of imperial formations should seriously engage Go’s text as he leads us toward promising and productive lines of inquiry.” -- Ileana María Rodríguez-Silva * A Contracorriente *
“Go has developed a brilliant schema for studying and categorizing the political and cultural development of elite politics in Puerto Rico and the Philippines during the early years of American rule.” -- Leland Conley Barrows * Interventions *
“Go’s American Empire makes an important contribution to debates over imperialism. . . . [B]y focusing on local experience during U.S. occupation, [Go] places American empire in a global framework. . . . Instead of attempting to internationalize U.S. history by emphasizing novel groups or ideas that Americans encountered abroad, Go turns the table on the debate by delineating how U.S. ideals, signs, and practices affected change and were changed abroad by ‘others.’ For these reasons, I would recommend students of imperialism, cultural theory, postcolonial theory, amongst others, consider adding Go’s American Empire to their reading lists.” -- Maureen Mahoney * H-Net Reviews *
“Julian Go has developed an illuminating examination of elite male political cultures and strategies in Puerto Rico and the Philippines during the first two decades of U.S. colonial rule and military occupation. . . . I welcome Go’s comparison of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. It pushes all of us to think much more along global historical connection, rather than limiting ourselves to fields such as ‘Latin America’ and ‘Asia’ imposed by Cold-War area studies rubrics.” -- Eileen J. Findlay * American Historical Review *
“Julian Go has made a significant contribution to the study of the too rarely examined American empire, and imperial encounters generally, as well as to comparative cultural theory. . . . Go’s study not only creatively employs semiotics, but it is also well informed by the secondary literature and relevant documentary collections.” -- Frederick F. Travis * Journal of American History *