Identities in North America: The Search for Community

by Robert Earle (Editor), John D. Wirth (Editor)

This is a wide-ranging inquiry into the forces that define the nations of North America and that, through convergence, are bringing North America's peoples and institutions closer together. These socio-cultural and regional forces form a web of factors that goes beyond trade and investment policy to articulate each nation's sense of identity through its history, values, and practices. Can some sort of functional community emerge from these disparate identities? Are there fresh opportunities for cooperation to be found in North America's value structures, social groupings, and institutions? If so, what are the costs and the benefits that might accompany interactions that touch upon each nation's culture and sense of self? Since no book at this early stage of continental consciousness can or should aspire to be definitive, this inquiry - by thirteen scholars from Canada, Mexico, and the United States - is an attempt to assess the dynamics of identities and to seek out ways in which the three nations can become more comfortable with their collective future on the continent. The book's underlying premise is not the inevitability of community in North America, but its possibility.

268 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

I began reading intensively when I was 10 or so and writing intensively when I was about 15 or 16. I studied literature and writing at Princeton (undergraduate) and Johns Hopkins (graduate) and then spent two decades earning a living as a diplomat. During that time, I wrote on the side, publishing short stories in little magazines. In my fifties, I was able to retire--sort of--and published my first novel, The Way Home (2004) just before I was recruited to go to Baghdad to help the United States conclude the war its invasion of Iraq in 2003 had started. As you will have noticed, the war kept going, but you can assess my efforts to get us out of that conflict in my book, Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq. It has been described as a non-fiction novel, which is a fairly good characterization. My latest book, just released, is a collection of short stories, She Receives the Night (Vine Leaves), focusing on women around the world; the common theme, regardless of age, location or station, is the way in which women end up bearing the burdens of life's darkness so all of us may have some light.

I have published more than 100 short stories altogether. They can be found in the following magazines: Mississippi Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Iron Horse Literary Review, Blue Moon, Consequence, The MacGuffin, 34th Parallel, Smokelong.com, Nassau Lit, Hurricane Review, Black and White, Tryst, Prick of the Spindle, Chiron Review, Pangolin Papers, Iconoclast, Main Street Rag, Potomac Review, Quarterly West, Louisville Review, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since no one else has ever rated this, I figured I'd give it a shot. I thought it was a really well written book with strong arguments and thoughtful questions. There was little variety in the high quality of the essays/chapters, they were all insightful and resourceful.

The philosophical aspects of the book were strong, but also dense. The conclusion should maybe have been two chapters, just for easier reader orientation and comprehension, but that shouldn't be taken as a gripe against any of the material within said conclusion.

Reading this book as someone who was born after it was published, it offers some great context into the turn of the century America I grew up in. It was fascinating to see the expectations of that time period and to expand my understanding of the time-scale at which our nation's "contemporary problems" have been playing out. Our modern problems appear to somehow become historic, and rather pointless, when identified so casually as the most likely outcome.

I think this book does a good job of describing the system of the North American Identity formation(s), rather than simply what they think it is (or could be). The research on the border towns was fascinating and somehow seems so obvious after the fact. We should always expect the strongest identification of a "community" to lie along its edges. I think some physicists could help explain that phenomenon with the holographic principle, but idk enough about that to comment.

If you're interested in big scale systems thinking, this is a good book to read and reflect on. If you live in North America, this book may get you to Identify with the concept more. I think it does a good job of reconciling change with loss. As in change doesn't mean you've lost something, because it also means you've gained something. Turns out something is at its healthiest when it's allowed to adapt.

A national identify can't simply be erased away by interacting with Others–but that doesn't mean it won't be chipped at. If you get a sharper image of your national identity-for-itself, at the cost of confronting the holes in your national identify-in-itself. Have you actually lost anything? This book would argue no, and I think it does that well. Read this book!