American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-Imperialism

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From Mark Twain to the movement against the war in Vietnam, this is the story of ordinary Americans challenging empire. Author Richard Seymour alleges that all empires spin self-serving myths and in the US the most potent of these is that America is a force for democracy around the world. Yet, as he goes on to illustrate, there is a tradition of American anti-imperialism which gives the lie to this mythology. Seymour examines this complex relationship from the American Revolution to the present-day.

Reviews

American Insurgents presents an indispensable history of anti-imperialist movements in the United States. . . . Seymour shatters a whole host of standard misconceptions about resistance to overseas adventures, refuting the common portrait of a US public apathetic to the crimes of its government in foreign lands. . . . The book is illuminated by the courageous and inspiring voices of US anti-imperialists, from Frederick Douglass to Muhammad Ali to current opponents of recent US wars in the Middle East.
Michael Schwartz, author, War Without End

In these times of international rebellion, [Richard Seymour] has given us a tool with which to build a movement for a more just world, both within and beyond our borders.
Camilo Meja, author, Road to ar-Ramadi

In the tradition of Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States and Joe Allens Vietnam, Richard Seymour shows that US imperialism has generated significant domestic opposition rooted in grassroots movements for racial, economic, and social justice.
Michael Letwin, founding member, New York City Labor Against the War and Labor for Palestine

Praise for Liberal Defense of Murder

Richard Seymours obsessively researched, impressive first book holds its place as the most authoritative historical analysis of its kind
Resurgence

[T]ruly impressive breadth and depth ... [providing] ... a new European perspective and a warning on the lefts pragmatic and ultimately shortsighted support for imperialist adventures
Journal of American Studies

[A] powerful counter-blast against the monstrous regiment of useful idiots who have contributed in recent decades to the murderous mess of modern times
Times of London

[A]n excellent antidote to the propagandists of the crisis of our times
Independent on Sunday

[T]imely, provocative and thought-provoking
Independent

Among those who share responsibility for the carnage and chaos in the Gulf are the useful idiots who gave the war intellectual cover and attempted to lend it a liberal imprimatur. The more belligerent they sounded the more bankrupt they became; the more strident their voice the more craven their position Richard Seymour expertly traces their descent from humanitarian intervention to blatant Islamophobia.
Gary Younge

Indispensable Seymour brilliantly uncovers the pre-history and modern reality of the so-called pro-war Left.
China Miville

[E]ssential reading
New Statesman
American Insurgents presents an indispensable history of anti-imperialist movements in the United States. . . . Seymour shatters a whole host of standard misconceptions about resistance to overseas adventures, refuting the common portrait of a US public apathetic to the crimes of its government in foreign lands. . . . The book is illuminated by the courageous and inspiring voices of US anti-imperialists, from Frederick Douglass to Muhammad Ali to current opponents of recent US wars in the Middle East.
Michael Schwartz, author, War Without End

In these times of international rebellion, [Richard Seymour] has given us a tool with which to build a movement for a more just world, both within and beyond our borders.
Camilo Meja, author, Road to ar-Ramadi

In the tradition of Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States and Joe Allens Vietnam, Richard Seymour shows that US imperialism has generated significant domestic opposition rooted in grassroots movements for racial, economic, and social justice.
Michael Letwin, founding member, New York City Labor Against the War and Labor for Palestine

Praise for Liberal Defense of Murder

Richard Seymours obsessively researched, impressive first book holds its place as the most authoritative historical analysis of its kind
Resurgence

[T]ruly impressive breadth and depth ... [providing] ... a new European perspective and a warning on the lefts pragmatic and ultimately shortsighted support for imperialist adventures
Journal of American Studies

[A] powerful counter-blast against the monstrous regiment of useful idiots who have contributed in recent decades to the murderous mess of modern times
Times of London

[A]n excellent antidote to the propagandists of the crisis of our times
Independent on Sunday

[T]imely, provocative and thought-provoking
Independent

Among those who share responsibility for the carnage and chaos in the Gulf are the useful idiots who gave the war intellectual cover and attempted to lend it a liberal imprimatur. The more belligerent they sounded the more bankrupt they became; the more strident their voice the more craven their position Richard Seymour expertly traces their descent from humanitarian intervention to blatant Islamophobia.
Gary Younge

Indispensable Seymour brilliantly uncovers the pre-history and modern reality of the so-called pro-war Left.
China Miville

[E]ssential reading
New Statesman

Author Bio

Richard Seymour is a socialist writer and columnist and runs the blog Lenin's Tomb. He is the author of The Liberal Defense of Murder (Verso, 2008), and The Meaning of David Cameron (Zero Books, 2010). He has contributed to Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq and the Left , (NYU Press, 2008) and The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence (Ashgate, forthcoming). His articles have appeared in The Guardian, The New Statesman, Radical Philosophy and Historical Materialism. Originally from Northern Ireland, he now resides in London, where he is studying for a PhD at the London School of Economics.