Penny M Von Eschen
Biographic Data
| ID | 843039 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Penny M Von Eschen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Penny M |
| FAMILY NAME | Von Eschen |
| SIGNATURE | VON ESCHEN P M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Paranoid Empire: Forever Wars in Popular Culture
Examining iconic media productions, this essay explores a shift from the immediate post-9/11 period characterized by uncritical support for the U.S. military as a litmus test for patriotism to an increasingly paranoid worldview in which the United States is at once the victor and victim, laying the cultural foundation for authoritarian populism. Unlike Cold War-era productions in which skill, expertise, and diplomacy come together to thwart disas…
Soul Call
This article explores implicit as well as explicit debates over modernity among African American artists at the 1966 World Festival of Black Arts held in Dakar, Senegal, honing in on moments that reveal tensions among the artists as well as between artists and the US officials who sponsored their appearance there in the wake of the hard-fought passage of the US Voting Rights Act. The Dakar festival was a pivotal, if fraught, moment announcing a n…
Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957
During World War II, African American activists, journalists, and intellectuals forcefully argued that independence movements in Africa and Asia were inextricably linkep to political, economic, and civil rights struggles in the United States. Marshaling evidence from a wide array of international sources, including the black presses of the time, Penny M. Von Eschen offers a vivid portrayal of the African diaspora in its international heyday, from…
Made on Stage: Transnational Performance and the Worlds of Katherine Dunham from London to Dakar
In April 1966, the American choreographer, dancer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham capped nearly two decades of transnational touring and performance when she joined her old friend, the renowned poet and Senegal’s president Leopold Senghor, as adviser and co-organizer of the First World Festival of Negro Art in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. Dunham and Senghor were a fitting pair to lead the unprecedented gathering of black artists from the United …
Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War
Globalizing Popular Culture in the "American Century" and Beyond
In November of 2005, the first monument to martial arts expert and film star Bruce Lee was unveiled in Mostar, Bosnia, (one day before a second monument was displayed in Hong Kong.) Honoring Lee as a symbol of “loyalty, skill, justice, and friendship,” the organizers also intended the life-sized bronze statue as a “rebuke to the ongoing use of public spaces to glorify the country's competing nationalisms.” As one of them put it, “the monument is …
Enduring Public Diplomacy
On April 11, 2003, over the caption: "Palace of Rubble: American soldiers yesterday inside a ruined palace in Baghdad that belongs to president Saddam Hussein's son Uday," the front page of the New York Times featured a picture of what had been a grand piano, reduced to rubble. Glancing at the demolished piano, two American soldiers ascended the palace's winding staircase, which had survived amid the surrounding wreckage.1 The photograph appeared…
Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957
Challenging Cold War Habits: African Americans, Race, and Foreign Policy
There are striking resonances between African American history and histories of foreign relations. In examining the global context of slavery and the foundations of the political economy of the United States, many practitioners of African American history have highlighted the political, economic, and cultural relationships between the United States and other nations. Whether looking at the fearful responses of the U.S. government to the Haitian r…
Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957
During World War II, African American activists, journalists, and intellectuals forcefully argued that independence movements in Africa and Asia were inextricably linkep to political, economic, and civil rights struggles in the United States. Marshaling evidence from a wide array of international sources, including the black presses of the time, Penny M. Von Eschen offers a vivid portrayal of the African diaspora in its international heyday, from…
Enduring Public Diplomacy
On April 11, 2003, over the caption: "Palace of Rubble: American soldiers yesterday inside a ruined palace in Baghdad that belongs to president Saddam Hussein's son Uday," the front page of the New York Times featured a picture of what had been a grand piano, reduced to rubble. Glancing at the demolished piano, two American soldiers ascended the palace's winding staircase, which had survived amid the surrounding wreckage.1 The photograph appeared…
Challenging Cold War Habits: African Americans, Race, and Foreign Policy
There are striking resonances between African American history and histories of foreign relations. In examining the global context of slavery and the foundations of the political economy of the United States, many practitioners of African American history have highlighted the political, economic, and cultural relationships between the United States and other nations. Whether looking at the fearful responses of the U.S. government to the Haitian r…
Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957
Enduring Public Diplomacy
On April 11, 2003, over the caption: "Palace of Rubble: American soldiers yesterday inside a ruined palace in Baghdad that belongs to president Saddam Hussein's son Uday," the front page of the New York Times featured a picture of what had been a grand piano, reduced to rubble. Glancing at the demolished piano, two American soldiers ascended the palace's winding staircase, which had survived amid the surrounding wreckage.1 The photograph appeared…
Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War
Globalizing Popular Culture in the "American Century" and Beyond
In November of 2005, the first monument to martial arts expert and film star Bruce Lee was unveiled in Mostar, Bosnia, (one day before a second monument was displayed in Hong Kong.) Honoring Lee as a symbol of “loyalty, skill, justice, and friendship,” the organizers also intended the life-sized bronze statue as a “rebuke to the ongoing use of public spaces to glorify the country's competing nationalisms.” As one of them put it, “the monument is …
Made on Stage: Transnational Performance and the Worlds of Katherine Dunham from London to Dakar
In April 1966, the American choreographer, dancer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham capped nearly two decades of transnational touring and performance when she joined her old friend, the renowned poet and Senegal’s president Leopold Senghor, as adviser and co-organizer of the First World Festival of Negro Art in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. Dunham and Senghor were a fitting pair to lead the unprecedented gathering of black artists from the United …
Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957
During World War II, African American activists, journalists, and intellectuals forcefully argued that independence movements in Africa and Asia were inextricably linkep to political, economic, and civil rights struggles in the United States. Marshaling evidence from a wide array of international sources, including the black presses of the time, Penny M. Von Eschen offers a vivid portrayal of the African diaspora in its international heyday, from…
Soul Call
This article explores implicit as well as explicit debates over modernity among African American artists at the 1966 World Festival of Black Arts held in Dakar, Senegal, honing in on moments that reveal tensions among the artists as well as between artists and the US officials who sponsored their appearance there in the wake of the hard-fought passage of the US Voting Rights Act. The Dakar festival was a pivotal, if fraught, moment announcing a n…
Paranoid Empire: Forever Wars in Popular Culture
Examining iconic media productions, this essay explores a shift from the immediate post-9/11 period characterized by uncritical support for the U.S. military as a litmus test for patriotism to an increasingly paranoid worldview in which the United States is at once the victor and victim, laying the cultural foundation for authoritarian populism. Unlike Cold War-era productions in which skill, expertise, and diplomacy come together to thwart disas…
History (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Ancient history (3 works) · Empire (3 works)