Politics and Racism Beyond Nations

This book brings together theoretical knowledge from diverse fields as anthropology, biology, neurology, peace studies, political science, psychology, and sociology to address key challenges that transcend borders. It demonstrates how differences are created on many levels to reveal how the “othering project” is evident through national policies of immigration, through aspiring nationalisms, through genocidal inhumanity, and the subsequent effects of such othering evident in racial trauma. It further argues that we cannot limit our understanding of racism to forms of “white nationalism” or “whiteness movements” in the developed world and regions but look to the global formulation of such discrimination in colonial histories. The book introduces each chapter by providing rich ethnographic narratives from informants based upon the author’s  research on nationalism, racism, genocide, terrorism, trauma, scientific tolerance, and love and peace as well as some auto-ethnographic narratives from the author’s research on these themes.

"Based in the author's detailed research on memories of genocide and other traumas, Politics and Racism Beyond Nations is a passionate plea for confronting many of the most urgent problems we face in our current world, while showing the wider relevance of anthropology to these concerns. Will make for a useful and popular book for students." 

—David Sutton, Professor of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, USA

 

In Politics and Racism Beyond Nations, Linstroth analyses the multiple impacts of racism and “othering projects” in the United States and beyond. One of the strengths of this book is how Linstroth draws on a wealth of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks while bringing them to life through thick narratives of diverse individual experiences, such as members of the LGTBQIA+ community and Buddhist monastics. Through theory, people’s experiences, and his extensive anthropological research, Linstroth weaves topics that range from racism and othering, immigration, nationalism, terrorism, and racial trauma. Although theoretically focused, this book addresses issues of extreme relevance in our current world. 

This book is unique in how Linstroth connects diverse issues and its holistic approach. He discusses the role of the state and society in sustaining structural violence in tandem with the toll it takes on the minds and bodies of citizens. Additionally, Linstroth provides hope and a way to move our humanity forward through education and respect toward all living beings taking a Buddhist perspective. This book explains how othering and racism operate. It also illustrates how to use our interdependency and love for each other to restore our humanity. This book is insightful and contributes to the ongoing dialogue on how to create a world in which all living beings can thrive.

—Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, Professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, USA

 

Politics and racism as basis of crises and conflict remain topics of perennial interest in today’s world, not least because they are experienced the world over with associations on the big questions and major subjects of the century, including nationalism, genocide, terrorism, immigration, trauma, and love and peace. J. P. Linstroth’s magnificent book brilliantly interweaves poignantly the big questions on these major subjects from a multidisciplinary perspective. Spiced by a diverse collection of ethnographic narratives from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, this volume presents theoretical analyses of politics and racism across nations and brings a valuable service to the comparative study of the subjects. The volume is the latest work in what I can describe as Linstroth’s gift in sharing with the readers an extraordinary array of the major human concerns of the early 21^st century.  This author’s fascinating ideas and lucid writing provide rewarding knowledge to scholars across the social sciences.

—Fonkem Achankeng, Professor at College of Education and Human Services, The University of Wisconsin, USA

 

Dr. Linstroth’s eclectic approach to some of the most poignant challenges of our time provides a fresh look at transnational issues such as racism and politics. An anthropological perspective allows Linstroth to transcend the narrow confines of the nation-state in order to focus on lived experiences. Rather than providing specific solutions, the book forces the reader to challenge conventional wisdom and to accept the intrinsic complexity of the human condition. Linstroth blends a healthy concern for social justice with academic expertise. 
—Otto Federico von Feigenblatt, Academician, Royal Academy of Economics and Financial Sciences of Spain, USA

 

 

J.P. Linstroth is Adjunct Professor at Barry University, USA, and an Honorary Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Member at Catholic University of New Spain, USA. He is the author of Marching Against Gender Practice: Political Imaginings in the Basqueland (2015), co-recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Grant, and former Fulbright Scholar to Brazil. He has a D.Phil. degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford.