Civilizing the Enemy: German Reconstruction and the Invention of the West (Paperback)

~ Prof. Patrick Thaddeus Jackson (Author)

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For the past century, politicians have claimed that "Western Civilization" epitomizes democratic values and international stability. But who is a member of "Western Civilization"? Germany, for example, was a sworn enemy of the United States and much of Western Europe in the first part of the twentieth century, but emerged as a staunch Western ally after World War II.

By examining German reconstruction under the Marshall Plan, author Patrick Jackson shows how the rhetorical invention of a West that included Germany was critical to the emergence of the postwar world order. Civilizing the Enemy convincingly describes how concepts are strategically shaped and given weight in modern international relations, by expertly dissecting the history of "the West" and demonstrating its puzzling persistence in the face of contradictory realities.

"By revisiting the early Cold War by means of some carefully conducted intellectual history, Patrick Jackson expertly dissects the post-1945 meanings of "the West" for Europe's emergent political imaginary. West German reconstruction, the foundation of NATO, and the idealizing of 'Western civilization' all appear in fascinating new light."
--Geoff Eley, University of Michigan

"Western civilization is not given but politically made. In this theoretically sophisticated and politically nuanced book, Patrick Jackson argues that Germany's reintegration into a Western community of nations was greatly facilitated by civilizational discourse. It established a compelling political logic that guided the victorious Allies in their occupation policy. This book is very topical as it engages critically very different, and less successful, contemporary theoretical constructions and political deployments of civilizational discourse."
--Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University

"What sets Patrick Jackson's book apart is his attention, on the one hand, to philosophical issues behind the kinds of theoretical claims he makes and, on the other hand, to the methodological implications that follow from those claims. Few scholars are willing and able to do both, and even fewer are as successful as he is in carrying it off. Patrick Jackson is a systematic thinker in a field where theory is all the rage but systematic thinking is in short supply."
--Nicholas Onuf, Florida International University


Patrick Thaddeus Jackson is Assistant Professor of International Relations in American University's School of International Service.

About the Author

Patrick Thaddeus Jackson is Assistant Professor of International Relations in the school of International Service at American University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (June 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472069292
• ISBN-13: 978-0472069293
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,321,483 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important rejoinder to Huntington, April 10, 2009

By	Daniel Nexon (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Full disclosure: Patrick Jackson is a good friend and sometimes collaborator.

Civilizing the Enemy advances many important claims. The core of the book is a study of how policymakers, principally in the United States, legitimated the rehabilitation of western Germany, thus paving the way not only for its reconstruction as an industrial power but also its remilitarization. They did so, Jackson argues, by propounding a theory of "western civilization" that located Germany within the same community of values as the United States.

Political discourses of "Western Civilization" had other, if related, implications for American identity and foreign policy. Once people understood the American project--its experiment in liberty--not as something separate from Europe but as part of the destiny of an entity called "The West," it became increasingly difficult to justify traditional forms of US isolationism. Defending the American political project required defending "The West," a community that stretched from California to (at least) the Elbe.

What Jackson describes, in fact, is the naturalization of the concept of "Western Civilization." The notion of "the West" as a political community may now be taken as self-evident around the globe but, as Jackson shows, this is a relatively recent development. Jackson traces our current notion of "Western Civilization" to 19th Century German intellectuals, shows how ideas about "The West" were transmitted to American elites via Columbia University's "Contemporary Civilization" program. Founded in 1919 as a "why are we fighting World War I" class, Contemporary Civilization emerged as a model for subsequent courses--often called "great books" classes--that once flourished in American higher education. These are the very same courses that Alan Bloom lamented the passing of in The Closing of the American Mind, and which cultural conservatives often see as crucial to the defense of the "immemorial" western tradition.

In this respect, Jackson's book is also a direct--and perhaps the most important--rejoinder to Huntington's immensely influential The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Jackson not only proves that "The West" is an invented, and imagined, community, but offers an alternative understanding of what civilizations are and how we should think of them. In other words, unlike many of Huntington's other social-constructionist critics, Jackson thinks we should take civilizational politics seriously.

At the same time, Jackson's book is also a call to arms in ongoing debates in social theory and social-constructionist methodology. Jackson firmly rejects ways of thinking about the significance of rhetoric and argument that focus on the mental states of individuals. Invoking theorists from Wittgenstein (e.g., Philosophical Investigations: The German Text, with a Revised English Translation 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition) to John Shotter (e.g., Cultural Politics of Everyday Life: Social Constructionism, Rhetoric and Knowing of the Third Kind), Jackson develops a theory of "rhetorical commonplaces" and the consequences of their configuration for, in this study, American foreign policy.

Along the way, Jackson also challenges us to rethink the supposed "traditions" of American foreign policy and their relationship to one another over time and space (e.g., Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World). In addition, he elaborates the political significance of grounding political arguments in terms of "Western Civilization" rather than "Civilization," and shows how the use of the latter term links Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush.

This is a rich work, but it is also not one for a casual reader. Perhaps one day Jackson will write a popular version of the book, one that focuses on his important arguments about the nature and history of "Western Civilization." But, for now, he has given us a work that serious readers with a background in international relations, philosophy, social theory, and sociology will find challenging and provocative.