Defacing Power

Defacing power investigates how nation-states create self-images in part through aesthetics and how these images can be manipulated to challenge those states' power. Moving beyond theory, Brent Steele illustrates his provocative argument about the vulnerability of power with examples from recently history. He demonstrates how even powerful nation-states come to feel threatened not only by other nation-states or terrorist organizations but also by unexpected events that challenge their self-constructed image of security. At the same time, Steels shows that as each generation uses available media to create and re-create a national identity, technological innovations allow for the shifting, upheaval, and expansion of the cultural structure of a nation. Book jacket.

Brent J. Steele is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas.