Current Institutional Affiliation
American Politics, Hokkai School of Commerce

Award Information

Abe Fellowship 1997
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
Professor, American Political History, Hokkaido University
The Rise of Conservatism and the Redefinition of National Identity in Contemporary American Politics, 1964-1997

American conservatism and American nationalism have been the dual foci of my past work. Having started with an interest in McCarthyism, I have sought to find the origins of anti-radicalism back in American history. In this process I have recognized that every American political tenet cannot but face the tensions between the social reality of ethno-cultural diversity and the political demands to accommodate and absorb this diversity into a common national identity. In my doctoral dissertation, which dealt with a specific case of immigration policy during the Progressive period of the early twentieth century, I tried to depict how political ideology intertwines with the question of national identity. Based on these past attempts I now intend to write a general history of American nationalism, and the proposed project is part of this larger task, in which the question of liberalism and conservatism has pivotal meaning.

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