When the World Turned Upside Down

Name: When the World Turned Upside Down
Price: 37.00 CHF
Availability: InStock
Author: Luis Martínez-Fernández
ISBN: 978-1-4331-9599-0

Martínez-Fernández, Luis

When the World Turned Upside Down

Politics, Culture, and the Unimaginable Events of 2019-2022

by Luis Martínez-Fernández (Author)

History & Political Science

Summary

When the World Turned Upside Down is a collection of 66 essays and opinion columns written between 2019 and 2022, a period of momentous—some unimaginable—developments in the United States and across the world. This book stands at the intersection of opinion journalism, history, and chronicling offering a dialogue between past and present (or present and past). They are, to use the often-quoted phrase, first drafts of history.
Over the past five years, the world has witnessed several "unimaginables" about which the author felt compelled to write. Some of the book’s essays identify, analyze, and connect parallels between the U.S. Antebellum and Civil War and the contemporary increasingly polarized context that reached an explosive peak during the 2020 elections and the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Shrouded in a cloud of unprecedented global pestilence, the world has witnessed dramatic political and geopolitical change, mostly for the worse: China, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba, even Puerto Rico. Essays in this book discuss these transformations from a historical perspective as well as mass popular resistance, in places like Cuba, where they seemed unimaginable.
The book’s final section, "Not Boring at All: Globalization and World Politics," explores the global ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical rearrangements related to China’s meteoric ascendance as a world power, Russia’s militaristic expansionism, and related topics.

"In When the World Turned Upside Down, Luis Martínez-Fernández demonstrates that he is not ‘merely’ an acclaimed historian, but an engaging, sharp-witted social commentator. This excellent collection of columns, written during and about what Martínez-Fernández rightly terms ‘the unimaginable events of 2019-2022,’ is dazzling for his easy, readable blend of history, sociology, popular culture, politics and more."
—Jeff Robbins, Columnist, Boston Herald and Creators Syndicate

"Martínez-Fernández’s book reads like a series of missives from the front, capturing the drama of unfolding, often unpredictable, events. The author is a master story-weaver, drawing from the warp and weft of our national and global histories to reveal patterns in today’s events."
—Suzette Martinez Standring, Author of The Art of Column Writing

"Professor Martínez-Fernández fuses the perspective of a historian with a journalist’s eye on wide-ranging contemporary events. The result is an exhilarating read and a broader understanding of today’s world."
—George Breslauer, Professor and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emeritus, UC Berkeley

Excerpt

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Dedication
FM Epigraph
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Section I American History, Past, Present (Future?)
Introduction
1 Trump, Fake News, and Why History Matters More Than Ever
2 “All History Is Contemporary”: A 20/20 Look at the Antebellum and Civil War
3 Polarization, Nationalism, and Secessionism (Past and Present)
4 Race and Politics: Contemporary Echoes of the U.S. Antebellum
5 How Do Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama, and Trump Compare?
6 I Cannot Believe the Things I Have Been Reading in the Pre-election Media
7 Statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico in Historical Perspective
8 The 2020 U.S. Census: Historical Precedents and What Censuses Tell Us about Populations and Power, Past and Present
9 Is That a Constitution in Your Pocket?
Section II Rough Drafts of History: U.S. Society and Politics, 2019–2022
Introduction
10 Democratic Socialism in the United States: Does Bernie Sanders Need Rebranding?
11 Do the Riots in Minneapolis Forbode Greater Civil Unrest?
12 Pandemic, Pandemonium, and the November 2020 Elections
13 June 14–June 20, 2020: Trump’s Worst Week to Date?
14 Election-Eve Carpet Bombings, Scarier-Than-Usual Halloween Costumes, and Other Things We May See Before and on Election Day 2020
15 Fifty-Five Hours Binge-Watching the Never-Before-Seen and the Unimaginable (America, January 4–6, 2021)
16 Happy 2021 Valentine’s Day, Mr. Trump
17 Tucker and the Talking Heads: Anatomy of a Fox News Show Built on Deceit and Demagoguery
Section III Culture Is the History That We Inherit
Introduction
18 “Epic,” “Heroic,” “Patriots”: Words We Have Abused into Meaninglessness
19 The Diplomacy of Haggling
20 “Ask Them to Spell Their Names” and Other Real-Life Blunders in Transcultural Communications
21 Lost in Cultural Translation
22 The Summer Solstice, Kupalo/Kupala and St. John the Baptist
23 The Ajiaco, the Cuban Sandwich, and Other Cuban/Caribbean Foods for Thought
24 Barbados: The Caribbean’s First Slavery-and-Sugar Plantation Complex and World’s Newest Republic
25 Puerto Rico: The Holiday Island with the Longest Christmas Season
26 A Russian Soldier Put a Bullet Through the Poet’s Head
Section IV I Never Left the Classroom: Reflections on Education, Books and Reading
Introduction
27 The Schoolboy’s Old, Red English Atlas
28 My Offshore Library: University of Puerto Rico, 1978–1985
29 The Seven Deadly Sins of the Modern American University
30 Diverse Pathways in Education and Life: Seven Real-Life Stories
31 The Epidemic That Will Outlive the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Spiraling Mental Health Crisis Among Our College Students
32 An Almost Dangerous Occupation? Teaching History in Florida’s Public Schools and State Universities
33 Rethinking Columbus and 1492 in and out of the Classroom
34 Would You Like to Have Coffee with the Author?
35 I Saw My Entire Life Flash Before My Eyes
Section V ¡Despierta Latino!
Introduction
36 Hispanic? Latino? Latinx? What’s Nextx?
37 Hispanic Heritage Month 2020: Some Advice from the Trenches
38 Latinos in Florida’s 2020 Election
39 A Second Opinion: The Democratic Party Needs a Battery of Tests and Biopsies to Figure Out Why Its Support among Latino Voters Slipped in 2020
Section VI Puerto Rico, the World’s Oldest Colony
Introduction
40 Crisis in Paradise
41 Puerto Rico’s Democratic Revolt Result of Decades of Mounting Tectonic Pressure
42 Puerto Rico, Its Expanding Diaspora and the 2020 Elections
43 The 20 Plagues of Contemporary Puerto Rico
44 Can’t We Just Sell Multi-Plagued Puerto Rico and Solve the Political Status of the World’s Oldest Colony?
45 Should We Get Married or Continue Living Together? Puerto Rico’s Never-Ending Status Question
Section VII Exercises in Cuban Historiographical Maroonage
Introduction
46 “My Good Friend Roosevelt”: Fidel Castro to FDR, November 6, 1940
47 Unsolicited Advice for Bernie Sanders: Stay Away from the Cuba Trap
48 “Are We Not Your Fellow Artists?”: The Solitude of Cuba’s San Isidro Movement
49 A Tale of Two Other Cities: Rising Authoritarianism out of Washington, D.C., and Havana
50 An Honest Response to a Colleague’s Views on Cuba and U.S. Policy Toward That “Immiserated” Island
51 The Shattered Mirror: Democracy and Anti-Democracy on Both Sides of the Florida Straits, 2021
52 Sixtieth Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis Finds Communist Island in Deepest Crisis Ever
Section VIII Not Boring at All: Globalization and World Affairs
Introduction
53 What History Tells Us About COVID-19’s Future Impact
54 1989, History’s Stubborn Twists and the Commencement Speaker Who Warned Us to Remain Vigilant
55 The Right, the Left and Everything at the Other End
56 The Strange Etymologies of “the Left,” “Liberals,” and “Progressives”
57 Wars and Rumors of Wars in Times of TikTok: Is America Ready for a Major Conflagration?
58 Olympic Ceremonies: Spectacles of National Branding and Global Projection
59 Olympic Games, Truces, and Wars (Sochi, 2014; Beijing, 2022)
60 History’s Ghosts Trample Roughshod over Ukraine
61 We Know How Things Start But Not How They Are Going to End: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine
62 Queen Elizabeth II’s Passing and the U.S. Media: Reflections of a Lowercase “r” Republican
Section IX The Oracle of History
Introduction
63 If History Is of Any Value: March 2020, Revisited
64 Putin’s Dirty War, Geopolitical Adjustments and Prospects for Future Wars
65 Toward a Second American Civil War?
66 The Global Authoritarian Wave, Democratic Countercurrents and Dangerous Crosscurrents
Epilogue: Deadlines, Periodization and This Book’s Title
Index
About the Author

i→ ←i | ii→

This book is part of the Peter Lang Education list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

←ii | iii→

Luis Martínez-Fernández

When the World Turned
Upside Down

Politics, Culture, and the Unimaginable
Events of 2019-2022

←iii | iv→

Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Control Number: 2022046978

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

ISBN 978-1-4331-9614-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4331-9598-3 (ebook pdf)

ISBN 978-1-4331-9599-0 (epub)

DOI 10.3726/b20055

80 Broad Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10004

www.peterlang.com

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the author

Dr. Luis Martínez-Fernández is a historian, university professor, nationally syndicated columnist, and public speaker whose fields of expertise include Latin America; the Caribbean; education; world cultures; and Latino/Hispanic politics, culture, and society.

About the book

Over the past five years, the world has witnessed several “unimaginables” about which the author felt compelled to write. Some of the book’s essays identify, analyze, and connect parallels between the U.S. Antebellum and Civil War and the contemporary increasingly polarized context that reached an explosive peak during the 2020 elections and the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Shrouded in a cloud of unprecedented global pestilence, the world has witnessed dramatic political and geopolitical change, mostly for the worse: China, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba, even Puerto Rico. Essays in this book discuss these transformations from a historical perspective as well as mass popular resistance, in places like Cuba, where they seemed unimaginable.

The book’s final section, “Not Boring at All: Globalization and World Politics,” explores the global ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical rearrangements related to China’s meteoric ascendance as a world power, Russia’s militaristic expansionism, and related topics.

“In When the World Turned Upside Down, Luis Martínez-Fernández demonstrates that he is not ‘merely’ an acclaimed historian, but an engaging, sharp-witted social commentator. This excellent collection of columns, written during and about what Martínez-Fernández rightly terms ‘the unimaginable events of 2019-2022,’ is dazzling for his easy, readable blend of history, sociology, popular culture, politics and more.”

—Jeff Robbins, Columnist, Boston Herald and Creators Syndicate

“Martínez-Fernández’s book reads like a series of missives from the front, capturing the drama of unfolding, often unpredictable, events. The author is a master story-weaver, drawing from the warp and weft of our national and global histories to reveal patterns in today’s events.”

—Suzette Martinez Standring, Author of The Art of Column Writing

“Professor Martinez-Fernandez fuses the perspective of a historian with a journalist’s eye on wide-ranging contemporary events. The result is an exhilarating read and a broader understanding of today’s world.”

—George Breslauer, Professor and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emeritus, UC Berkeley

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

←iv | v→

Dedication

With love and hope, for my two grandsons, east-coaster Emilio Martínez González and west-coaster Wesley Martínez, born within six months of each other at a time when the unimaginable became daily news.

←v | vi→←vi | vii→

All history is contemporary history.

Benedetto Croce

History must teach us, in first place, how to read a newspaper.

Pierre Vilar

There comes a time when silence becomes dishonesty.

Frantz Fanon

When you write a book, you are asking someone to make an investment in their time and money. A column can come and go as the weeks pass, but a book needs to be timeless.

Regina Brett

←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Section IAmerican History, Past, Present (Future?)

Introduction

1 Trump, Fake News, and Why History Matters More Than Ever

2 “All History Is Contemporary”: A 20/20 Look at the Antebellum and Civil War

3 Polarization, Nationalism, and Secessionism (Past and Present)

4 Race and Politics: Contemporary Echoes of the U.S. Antebellum