President Trump and General Pershing

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Theory, Praxis, and American Politics in the Age of Post-truths

   • Marouf A. Hasian Jr.

   Pages 1-40

3. Competing Military and Civilian Remembrances of “Black Jack” Pershing and the Moros, 1899–1914

   • Marouf A. Hasian Jr.

   Pages 41-76

4. Cultural Amnesias, Changing Political Needs, and Conflicting Memories of General Pershing and the “Moro” Rebellion, 1915–2000

   • Marouf A. Hasian Jr.

   Pages 77-105

5. Post-9/11 Anxieties, Donald Trump’s “Post-truths,” Pershing, and Contemporary Defenses of Counterinsurgency “Hearts and Minds” Strategies

   • Marouf A. Hasian Jr.

   Pages 107-133

6. Back Matter

   Pages 135-136

   PDF

This book provides a critical analysis of Donald Trump’s mention of General Pershing and his alleged use of bullets dipped in pig’s blood to kill 49 out of 50 captured Muslims during the suppression years in the Philippines. The author argues that most observers who heard this “fable” dismissed it as an inaccurate representation of historical realities that also maligned a great general. Using critiques of both Trump and “post-truths,” the author argues that instead of being summarily dismissive of these comments, academics, investigative journalists and others ought to follow the US president’s admonition that we study “history,” but do so in nuanced ways. The author argues that there are times when false renditions of historical events may in fact provide opportunities to revisit contentious pasts, and this book suggests that in place of sanitized military histories, we take this opportunity to provide detailed analyses of the “Moro” rebellion.

• political rhetoric
• postcolonial
• subaltern
• public memory
• American exceptionalism
• U.S.-Philippine war
• populism
• American military
• post-truth
• Trumpian rhetoric
• imperial studies
• critical security studies
• political geography
• Moro Rebellion
• critical genealogical
• Edward Said
• John J. Pershing
• hearts and minds
• pig-bullets
• us politics

• Department of Communication, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

  Marouf A. Hasian, Jr.

Marouf A. Hasian, Jr. is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah, USA. He is the author of Restorative Justice, Humanitarian Rhetorics, and Public Memories of Colonial Camp Cultures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Policies and ethics