New books recently published by members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln community include “American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: U.S. Foreign Policy, Human Rights, and World Order” by David Forsythe and Patrice McMahon and “The Basque Exile: Studies in Homage to Professor José Ángel Ascunce Arrieta” by Iker González-Allende.

American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: U.S. Foreign Policy, Human Rights, and World Order by David Forsythe, emeritus professor of political science, and Patrice McMahon, associate professor of political science (192 pages, Taylor and Francis, 2016) – This book is focused on the willingness of the United States to take universal human rights seriously. American political leaders say the United States has a commitment to human rights. But the United States failed to stop destruction as chaos spread in Libya and Syria. This book focuses on the myths surrounding foreign policy and the future of world order. Forsythe and McMahon posit a new brand of American globalism, or a foreign policy that gives primacy to national self-interest but does so with attention to universal human rights and a willingness to suffer and pay for those outside its borders. The occasions of exception, such as Libya and Syria, provide case studies for critical analysis and allow the authors to look to emerging dominant powers, especially China, for indicators of new challenges to the commitment to universal human rights and humanitarian affairs in the context of the ongoing clash between liberalism and realism.

The Basque Exile: Studies in Homage to Professor José Ángel Ascunce Arrieta, by Iker González-Allende, associate professor of Spanish (420 pages, 2016) – This publication is an edited volume in Spanish on the exile that the Basque Country suffered as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War. The Basque country is a historical nation in the north of Spain with Spanish and Basque as its two official languages. The volume, written in homage to Professor José Ángel Ascunce Arrieta, includes an interview with him and 15 contributions by renowned scholars from Europe, Latin America and the United States. The book is divided into two main parts: “General Studies” and “Authors and Works of the Basque Exile.” The essays reveal the plurality of the Basque exile by studying both Basque nationalist and Republican authors. The chapters also cover all the literary genres and fields such as philosophy, periodicals, painting, film and higher education. The topics analyzed include the traumatic memory of the war and the bombing of Gernika, homesickness and maintenance of the Basque language and national traditions, settlement and adaptation to the host country, and humanist and universal thought.

This regular Nebraska Today column features information about the recent publications of Nebraska faculty, staff and students. For more information about each publication, click the link within the related book. The campus community can submit recent publication news to tfedderson@unl.edu or call 402-472-8515.