• Precision Targets: GPS and the Militarization of U.S. Consumer Identity

    Author(s):
    Caren Kaplan (see profile)
    Date:
    2007
    Group(s):
    Place Studies, War Studies
    Subject(s):
    United States, Area studies, Military geography, Sociology, Military
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Consumption, GPS, Warfare, American studies, Military sociology
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6549G
    Abstract:
    For most people in the United States, war is almost always elsewhere. Since the Civil War, declared wars have been engaged on terrains at a distance from the continental space of the nation. Until the attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon in September 2001, many people in the United States perceived war to be conflicts between the standing armies of nation-states conducted at least a border—if not oceans and continents—away. Even the attacks of September 11 were localized in such a way as to feel as remote as they were immediate—watching cable news from elsewhere in the country, most U.S. residents were brought close to scenes of destruction and death by the media rather than by direct experience. Thus, in the United States, we could be said to be "consumers" of war, since our gaze is almost always fixed on representations of war that come from places perceived to be remote from the heartland.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1353/aq.2006.0061
    Publisher:
    Johns Hopkins University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2007-1-5
    Journal:
    American Quarterly
    Volume:
    58
    Issue:
    3
    Page Range:
    693 - 714
    ISSN:
    1080-6490
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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