{"product_id":"the-cult-of-the-victim-veteran-jerry-lembcke-9781032490243","title":"The Cult of the Victim-Veteran: MAGA Fantasies in Lost-war America","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChoice Editors' Picks for April 2024\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Cult of the Victim-Veteran explores the pool of American post- Vietnam War angst that rightists began plying in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan's 1984 proclamation of a new \"Morning in America\" encoded the war as the moment of the nation's fall from grace; it was the meme plagiarized by Donald Trump for his \"Make America Great Again\" (MAGA) slogan.\u003cp\u003eThe national funk tapped for right- wing revanchism was psychologized when George H.W. Bush appropriated post- Vietnam syndrome, the diagnostic forerunner to post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to memorialize the military accomplishments in the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991--we had \"kicked the Vietnam Syndrome.\" America was a victim- nation, its trauma emblemized by PTSD-stricken veterans whose war mission had been lost on the home front, cast aside, even spat on, upon return home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book we see the long historical threads woven for MAGA: the twining of traditional and modern ways of knowing that imbues war trauma with political and cultural properties that complicate its diagnostic use; the post- World War I disclosure that many shellshock patients had never been exposed to exploding shells, and the use of wounded- veteran imagery to fan the flames of German fascism; the cultural necessity of reimaging antiwar Vietnam veterans as psychiatric casualties that calls forth a new diagnostic category, PTSD; the derivatizing of PTSD for traumatic brain injury, Agent Orange, and moral injury; and the victim- veteran figure as metaphor for a wounded America, for which MAGA is the remedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jerry Lembcke\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1032490241\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781032490243\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Routledge\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/17\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 120\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.43lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.28d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2024","brand":"Jerry Lembcke","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45331896959231,"sku":"9781032490243","price":48.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_71bc8694-2238-4d88-aadf-fdfd91cbe440.jpg?v=1713971176","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-cult-of-the-victim-veteran-jerry-lembcke-9781032490243","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}