INTRODUCTION: THE FORCE OF A THOUSAND NIGHTMARES

Abstract

This Introduction provides a thematic overview of this special issue. It draws attention to the multiplicity of forces that produce new and complicated forms of oppression and exploitation in post-Cold War, post-9/11 America and provides brief descriptions of the articles collected here, highlighting their contributions to Americanist critical theory and ethnography and anthropology in general. Early versions of the articles collected in this special issue were presented at the session “The Force of A Thousand Nightmares: Global Inequalities and the American Scene,” organized by Micaela di Leonardo and Jeff Maskovsky, at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2002. We wish to thank the Society for the Anthropology of North America and the Society for Feminist Anthropology for co-inviting this session. We also thank Identities editors Jonathan Hill and Thomas Wilson for their support and encouragement and for shepherding this project through the peer-review process. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and suggestions. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Catherine Kingfisher for her brilliant commentary. Finally, we dedicate this special issue to the memory of our comrade and friend, Dwight Conquergood, who had planned to contribute an article to this special issue. His untimely death from colon cancer last year prematurely silenced one of the most eloquent, passionate, and persuasive academic voices of the left. We celebrate his compassionate spirit, inspired intellect, and unwavering pursuit of social justice.