Marginalized Masculinities and the American Nation: African American and Native American Military Heroism, 1941-1978

该研究项目考察了黑人和印度人的军事英雄主义，以揭示1941年至1978年间种族边缘化的男性与美国民族主义之间的动态相互关系。在西方文化中，战争的阳刚之气和国家归属的阳刚之气是不可分割地交织在一起的。这种相互关系集中体现在英勇的公民士兵身上。然而，这种理想常常起着排斥性的作用。特别是在美国，白人战士英雄成为了国家男子气概的核心典范，使非洲裔美国人和印第安人边缘化。因此，承认黑人和印第安人的军事英雄主义具有巨大的社会、文化和政治重要性。为了更好地理解这种动态的相互关系，该项目关注的问题是非裔美国人和印第安人退伍军人、活动家和记者如何利用军事英雄主义来挑战他们在民权时代和以后作为男人和公民的边缘化。它提出了一个假设，即在第二次世界大战、朝鲜战争和越南战争中英勇的军事服务，以及在以前的军事冲突中的英雄主义记忆，为这些人提供了一个重要的机会来肯定他们的男子气概，挑战他们的边缘化。重点是这两个少数民族和1941年至1978年这段时间，因为第二次世界大战标志着一段时期的开始，这段时期为非洲裔美国人和美洲原住民的民权进行了持续的行动，也使黑人和印第安人在战场上的英勇行为越来越受到关注和认可。比较这两个群体也有助于解释白人、黑人和土著对男子气概、民族和英雄主义的理解之间的异同。该项目采用了一种新的文化历史方法，由两个子项目组成，这些子项目利用了霸权男子气概的概念，并依赖于口述历史和记忆研究的多学科方法。通过关注在文化国家建设过程中被种族边缘化的男性在很大程度上未被审视的作用，该项目对美国民族主义的性别维度的历史研究做出了重要贡献。此外，它还分析了对黑人和印第安英雄士兵的解释是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，这为美国军事英雄主义的历史和记忆提供了新的见解。最后，这个项目帮助我们更好地理解英雄主义是如何在美国社会中构建社会、文化和政治等级的。

The research project examines black and Indian military heroism to shed light on the dynamic interrelationship of racially marginalized masculinities and American nationalism between 1941 and 1978. The masculinity of war and the masculinity of national belonging have been inextricably intertwined in Western cultures. This interrelationship is epitomized in the heroic citizen soldier. However, this ideal frequently served exclusionary functions. Particularly in the United States, the white warrior hero became a central exemplar of national manhood that marginalized African Americans and Native Americans. Consequently, the acknowledgment of black and Indian military heroism took on tremendous social, cultural, and political importance. To better understand this dynamic interrelationship, the project focuses on the question of how African American and Native American veterans, activists, and journalists utilized military heroism to challenge their marginalization as men and citizens during the civil rights era and beyond. It poses the hypothesis that heroic military service during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War as well as the memory of heroism in previous military conflicts afforded these men a crucial opportunity to affirm their manhood and to challenge their marginalization. The focus is on these two minorities and the period 1941-1978 because World War II marked the beginning of a period of sustained activism for African American and Native American civil rights as well as increasing visibility and acknowledgment of black and Indian valor on the battlefield. Comparing these two groups also helps explain similarities and differences between white, black, and indigenous interpretations of masculinity, nation, and heroism. The project follows a new cultural history approach and is comprised of two subprojects that utilize the concept of hegemonic masculinity and rely on multidisciplinary methodologies from oral history and memory studies. By concentrating on the largely unexamined agency of racially marginalized masculinities in processes of cultural nation building, the project makes important contributions to the historical study of the gender dimensions of U.S. nationalism. In addition, its analysis of how interpretations of black and Indian heroic soldiers changed over time provides new insights into the history and the memory of military heroism in the United States. Finally, the project helps us better understand how heroism structured social, cultural, and political hierarchies in American society.