Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The nation stood in either awe or disbelief when Bernie Sanders, a political Independent, only recently turned Democrat, defeated the establishment candidate and former first lady, Hillary Clinton, in the early 2016 New Hampshire primary. As the primaries concluded, it became clear that Sanders’ message resonated. But why was this the case after eight years of “hope and change” under the Obama administration? Furthermore, to what extent did Sanders align with traditional Democrats or traditional Socialists and how can we understand the unprecedented success of a presidential candidate who identifies with socialism? My thesis seeks to answer these puzzles. I do so by: interviewing Sanders supporters, investigating the development of American Socialism and Sanders’ own political identity, and analyzing the economic and social factors leading up to the 2016 primaries. Ultimately, my thesis proposes that Sanders’ ability to win over twelve million votes in the Democratic Party primaries stems from his creation of his own brand of socialism that merged traditional socialist principles of championing the working person with the economic and social realities of twenty first century middle-class America.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of History, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:16:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Simioes Goncalves.pdf: 1740603 bytes, checksum: cfb13501f5b47517e60c194bfbccc6b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-23 / The present work is a study of the historical and philosophical background of Latin American double consciousness. Since the beginning of America, Latin American identity has been forged through a breakup and a tension between the logic of coloniality of power (one as a principle) and the logic of critical mestizaje (two as a totality). In the first one, difference is radically denied; in the second one, it is legitimized as a foundation of reality. This originates a dialectic of extremes proper to Latin America s formation, in which different memories and times are mixed in a heterogeneous and contradictory totality. In the beginning of the XX century, the work of the thinker José Carlos Mariátegui was the expression of such tension. Being the first great Marxist thinker of Peru, Mariátegui defended the idea that there is an agonizing struggle between two souls in Latin American consciousness: on the one hand, the positivist decaying edifice built from capitalism; on the other hand, the new impetus, the passionate desire in search of Indo-American socialism, capable of bringing together indigenous world, revolution, spirituality and poetic imagination in the same movement of the subversion of Latin America s historical double consciousness. The tradition of a critical thinking that can express the way of life of different populations of Latin America continued throughout the XX century, when the idea of a critical mestizaje develops in the literature, the philosophy and the social thinking of the whole continent. It is in this context that the category of liberation is constituted as an expression proper of the Latin American critical thinking and, in the beginning of the XXI century, unfolds in the search for an intercultural and decolonized praxis. Considering this long-lasting historical arc, the thesis brings subsidies to a reading of the current context of capitalism s structural crisis, from the standpoint of the intersubjective dimension as divided historical consciousness. And it puts forward approaches to the construction of a new historical sense for the contemporary social struggles / O presente trabalho é um estudo sobre a formação histórico-filosófica da dupla consciência latino-americana. Desde o início da América, a identidade latino-americana se forjou a partir de uma cisão e de uma tensão entre a lógica da colonialidade do poder (um como princípio) e a lógica da mestiçagem crítica (dois como totalidade). Na primeira, a diferença é radicalmente negada; na segunda, é legitimada enquanto fundamento da realidade. Disso se origina uma dialética dos extremos própria à formação latino-americana, em que diferentes memórias e tempos se combinam em uma totalidade heterogênea e contraditória. No início do séc. XX, a obra do pensador José Carlos Mariátegui é a expressão dessa tensão. Primeiro grande pensador marxista do Peru, Mariátegui defendia a ideia de que havia uma luta agônica entre duas almas na consciência latino-americana. De um lado, o decadente edifício positivista erigido a partir do capitalismo. Do outro, o novo ânimo, a vontade apaixonada em busca do socialismo indo-americano, capaz de reunir mundo indígena, revolução, espiritualidade e imaginação poética em um mesmo movimento e de subverter a dupla consciência histórica latino-americana. A tradição de um pensamento crítico que seja expressão do modo de vida das diferentes populações da América Latina tem continuidade no decorrer do séc. XX, quando a ideia de uma mestiçagem crítica se desenvolve na literatura, na filosofia e no pensamento social de todo o continente. É nesse contexto que a categoria da libertação se constitui como uma expressão própria do pensamento crítico latino-americano e se desdobra, no início do séc. XXI, na busca por uma práxis intercultural e descolonizada. Ao analisar esse arco histórico de larga duração, a tese traz subsídios para uma leitura do atual contexto de crise estrutural do capitalismo, a partir da dimensão intersubjetiva enquanto consciência histórica dividida e aponta caminhos para a construção de um novo sentido histórico para as lutas sociais do tempo presente