The Shadow of Torture: Debating US Transgressions in Military Interventions, 1899-2008

The Shadow of Torture investigates debates on US torture during the Philippine-American War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War with the aim to provide a historical contextualization of the torture debate in the United States in the wake of Abu Ghraib. It argues that there are significant continuities, contrary to popular claims to exceptionalism.

The photographs from Abu Ghraib triggered a debate on torture in the United States that has been led with a significant amount of visibility. What has been noticeably absent, however, is a thorough historical contextualization of US torture following September 11, 2001. The Shadow of Torture analyzes the debates on torture during the Vietnam War and the Philippine-American War and shows that the current controversy did not arise out of a political vacuum but reflects and draws upon pre-existing discursive contexts and practices.

Autorentext

Katrin Dauenhauer is a lecturer at the University of Bonn's North American Studies Program. Her research focuses on American politics and culture, international relations, and human rights.

Zusammenfassung
«Insgesamt leistet Katrin Dauenhauer mit ihrer Studie einen intelligenten und weiterführenden Beitrag zur Historisierung der Folterdebatten zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts.»
(Sylvia Kesper-Biermann, sehepunkte 15/2015)

Inhalt
Contents: Introduction: Debating US Torture in Military Interventions, 1899-2008 «Curing» the Natives: Debating US Torture During the Philippine-American War, 1899-1902 Forgetting/Rewriting/Reclaiming: Shadows of the Philippine-American War, 1899-1902 To Tell or Not to Tell: American Atrocities in Vietnam Framing the Human: Reading North Vietnamese Torture in POW Narratives of the Vietnam War Abu Ghraib and the (Unexceptional) Rhetoric of the Exceptional.