The Strange Death of American Liberalism

The Strange Death of American Liberalism

Author: H.W. Brands

Paperback: 200 pages

Publisher: Yale University Press (2001-11-01)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0300098243

ISBN-13: 978-0300098242

About the Author

   Henry William Brands is an American historian and author of 22 books, co-author of 2 and editor of 4, he is also a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from Stanford University in 1975 with a B.A. in history and from Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon. One his most famous book is The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2000).

Introduction & Analysis

   In this book the author tries to explain the causes of the failure of liberalism in modern America. By “liberalism,” Brands means the belief that government should not just protect life, liberty, and property, but should undertake programs designed to make life better. From the beginning of the book it is clear that the writer advocates liberalism, but the modern conception of liberalism and tries and disdains its challengers. The author is not going to prove the correctness of the liberalism but he wants to explain why he thinks it is dead. Brands is not sure about the date of liberalism death and he is confusing in this regard, once he says that liberalism has died in 1975 and then claims that it has died with the end of cold war. He believes that liberalism was possible because of the Cold War American felt that they needed a powerful central government to protect internationally and this led to trust in government. But breakdown in Vietnam, ending in 1975, changed the American people point of view toward government and made them skeptical of a big government and liberal standings of politicians.

   Brands argues that liberalism is a political agreement that can only succeed in the U.S. during wartime. Only during war Americans give up distrust of the federal government and allow it to take over new responsibilities. Some Baby Boomers think that liberalism is a natural and permanent condition in U.S. politics, it just needs a revival the author believes that it is an illusion that has fooled them; while American wars were short so the big government was short-lived too, but the duration of the Cold War brought about more continuous intrusion of the central government into Americans' lives than ever. Brands says that always the growth in big government has corresponded with each of the major war, dating back to the American revolution, but after the wars people get so cynical toward big government. Conservatives are probably joyful to read this book because the author believes that conservatism is the natural state for Americans. Like most conservatives, Brands attaches liberalism to big government, yet mentions frequently how conservatives have welcomed big government in appropriate time.

   Totally the author believes that liberalism is dead because people have lost their confidence in government and this death happens when the government grows and basic right of people and their freedom is at risk from the government which would intrude in peoples’ lives and restrict their freedom. Liberalism can be revived by restricting the central government, in fact liberalism in the US is a cyclic phenomenon, which fades away with growth in central government and reemerges with decline in central government.

   The book is recommended to those who want to know about the two mainstream ideologies of the US society and politics, their effect on each other and on the US politics and society also conflicting essence of them regarding each other and complementary essence of them regarding making the American society. The book proposes an interesting thesis, decline in liberalism and growth in central government, during major American wars, which can be tested taking previous American wars in account and especially ensuing ones.

Forrest Gump

Watch the Trailer

Forrest Gump

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Produced by Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch and Charles Newirth

Written by Winston Groom

Screenplay by Eric Roth

Starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright,Gary Sinise,Mykelti Williamson,Sally Field

Genre: Comdey-Drama

Distributed by Paramount Pictures

Running time: 141 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

Budget: $55 million

Gross revenue: $677,387,716

Plot

   In 1981, Forrest Gump tells the story of his life to the different listeners at the bus stop, each showing different reactions. Although Forrest has well below average intelligence, his mother is able to register him into a public school. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny which would be the only friend of Forrest. Although Forrest has some trouble with his spine he can get into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship because of his ability in running fast. He becomes a star running and meets White House and President John F Kennedy. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army. There he makes friends with Bubba, who suggests Forrest a shrimping business when the Vietnam War is over. He also meets Jenny again, when he sees her in Playboy magazine. He then goes to find her and discovers that she is a stripper working at a bar. In 1967, Forrest and Bubba are sent to Vietnam, and after awhile their platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men in his unit, Bubba is killed in action, and Lt. Dan Taylor, the platoon's commanding officer, losses her legs. Forrest is wounded during the battle, and is awarded the Medal of Honor.

   Forrest discovers a strange ability for ping pong while in recovery. He starts playing for the U.S. Army team, gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status. He eventually defeats his Chinese rival. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle while Forrest was away and is engaged to another man.

   Upon leaving military service and returning home, Forrest accepts an offer to endorse a company that makes ping pong paddles in exchange for an endorsement fee of $25,000. He uses the money to buy a shrimping boat and fulfill his wartime promise to Bubba and gets lots of money through shrimping business.

   In 1976, Jenny returns to visit Forrest, and they spend some time whith each other but one morning Jenny leaves Forrest. On an unpredictable decision, Forrest decides to run. He decides to run across the country and accomplishes it.

   While finishing his story, Forrest telss that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he finds Jenny, Forrest discovers she has a young son, also named Forrest, and Jenny says Forrest is the boy's father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering and dying from an unknown virus which has no cure. Together, the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama where Jenny and Forrest finally marry. Jenny dies soon afterward, leaving their son in Forrest's care. Forrest talks to Jenny's grave and tells her how well their son is doing in school. On his son's first day of school, Forrest sits with him at the school bus stop. Forrest's first bus driver is also his son's first bus driver as the movie ends.

Analysis:

   For me the film is a promoter of American culture and values and I want to look at the film from this point of view. It is the promoter of the American values using both conservative and liberal values, but the conservative values are more dominant and highlighted and liberal values are loosely used to promote just the American culture and at the end liberal values are defeated by conservative values although both ideologies are used to promote the American culture. The film also uses the American icon and figure to promote the American culture.

   Family is and home are very important in film, Forrest mother is a devoted mother who does her best to keep the family and nurture her child although Forrest father is not present and may leave the family but the mother asserts that that he is on vacation so she wants to that they are a family. “there is no place like home” and “family forever” these themes can be seen in the film when Forrest, Jenny and their child return their home, Greenbow, Alabama, as a family. Gump is the man family, he is loyal to his love and does his best to have his own family. Gump is a hard working guy who works and tries hard to achieve happiness he expects nothing without hard-working. From the beginning Gump is running and he even runs across the US, symbolically “chasing the American Dream”. Gump also is religious person, after returning home from China he says that people in China do not go to the church or he goes to the church to pray in order to have a big shrimping.  Forrest also uses liberal gestures, like participating in anti-Vietnam War rally and taking part in a TV show to talk about his experience in China, telling that Chinese people are deprived from freedom and basic human rights. Gump is the symbol of conservative values and Jenny is the symbol of liberal values but at the end Jenny is dead but Gump as the symbol of the conservatives is the source of maintenance and continuity of the American culture.

   Totally the film was made to appeal to conservatives and invalidate liberals but to promote the American culture even by utilizing liberal values. It also is a condemnation of the counterculture movement of the 1960s and its aftermaths. Jennifer Hyland Wang, movie critic, argued that Curran's death to an unnamed virus "...symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade [1960s]." Even the main structure of the film crew connote the conservative orientation of the film. Steve Tisch, one of the producers of the film is a conservative person who has produced other conservative film after Forrest Gump like Knowing and The Pursuit of Happyness that the later one alongside Forrest Gump are among the best 25 conservative movies by the National Review magazine.

RUN, AMERICA, RUN