September 14, 2004
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
Prophetic author Chalmers Johnson delivers the lecture The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Chalmers Johnson
- The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- Johnson is also the author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
- Sunday, October 17
- 3 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public $8 / UCSB students $6
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
Chalmers Johnson, author of the prophetic best-seller Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, will deliver the public lecture The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, based on his recent highly acclaimed book of the same name, on Sunday, October 17 at 3 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall.
Johnson’s lecture will explore the new militarism that is transforming the United States and compelling its people to pick up the burden of empire. Among Johnson’s provocative conclusions is that American militarism is putting an end to the age of globalization and bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent repercuss. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the United States has already crossed its Rubicon, with the Pentagon leading the way. Atlantic Monthly editor James Fallows asserts, “Chalmers Johnson’s relentless logic, authoritative scholarship, and elegantly biting prose distinguish The Sorrows of Empire, like all his other work. Anyone who reads it will have a much sharper sense of the costs of America’s new world-girdling commitments.”
Chalmers Johnson is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, a non-profit research and public affairs organization devoted to public education concerning Japan and international relations in the Pacific. From 1962-1992 he taught at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both schools. At Berkeley he served as chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies and as chairman of the Department of Political Science. His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in economics and political science are all from the University of California, Berkeley.
Johnson came to national prominence in 2000 with the publication of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. Blowback, a term invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended side effects of American policies. In his controversial book, Johnson laid out the dangers faced by the United States’ overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. In Blowback, Johnson issued a warning that turned out prophetic with the events of 9/11.
Johnson first visited Japan in 1953 as a U.S. Navy officer and has lived and worked there with his wife, the anthropologist Sheila K. Johnson, virtually every year since 1961. He has been honored with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Guggenheim Foundation; in 1976 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written numerous articles, reviews and fifteen books, including Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power on the Chinese revolution, An Instance of Treason on Japan’s most famous spy, Revolutionary Change on the theory of violent protest movements, and MITI and the Japanese Miracle on Japanese economic development. This last title laid the foundation for the “revisionist” school of writers on Japan, and because of it the Japanese press dubbed him the “Godfather of revisionism.” He was chairman of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series The Pacific Century, and he played a prominent role in the PBS Frontline documentary Losing the War with Japan. Both won Emmy awards.
Courtesy of Borders, books by Chalmers Johnson will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
Chalmers Johnson is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The event is part of the Global Forces in the Post-Cold War World lecture series presented with the Global and International Studies Program and the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Tickets for the event are $8 for the general public and $6 for UCSB students. They are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.