Communications

ARTICLES

To the Editor:

In the October 2000 issue of the American Historical Review, Andrew J. Rotter wrote about the tendency of foreign relations scholars, even those most interested in the intersection between cultural and diplomatic history, to ignore the work of Edward W. Said ("Saidism without Said: Orientalism and U.S. Diplomatic History," /journals/ahr/105.4/ah001205.html). My work on public opposition to U.S. hegemony in Mexico and the Caribbean region in the 1920s profiles a social movement that traversed the core/periphery divide. I begin with this quote from Culture and Imperialism because it places my case study in a broader context: "The ideological and cultural war against imperialism occurs first in the form of resistance in the colonies, and later as resistance spills over into Europe and the United States, in the form of opposition or dissent in the metropolis. The first phase of this dynamic produces nationalist independence movements, the second, later, and more acute phase produces liberation struggles" (Said, Culture and Imperialism, New York, 1993, p. 276).

     It is Said's work on anti-imperialism that I find most compelling. It is when Said moves away from his academic deconstruction of empire and considers how and why movements to overcome empire and build a just and equitable society have succeeded and failed that those of us studying anti-imperialist and ethnic solidarity movements and U.S. foreign relations lean on his insights. Said is himself a nationalist/internationalist trying to find a way toward "Freedom from Domination in the Future" (one of the chapters in Culture and Imperialism). Because he is a scholar/activist, there is clarity and utility to his insights on ethnic identity movements and the construction of international liberation struggles. Historians concerned with the role of public dissent in U.S. foreign relations have much to gain from consulting the works of Edward Said.

Anne Winkler-Morey

University of Minnesota

Andrew J. Rotter does not wish to reply.

The Editors

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