Dr. Clifford Manlove, Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Greater Allegheny, has been invited to edit and publish a comprehensive volume of materials appearing in various editions of the Stars and Stripes by the Board of Directors of the publication's Museum and Library. Manlove has secured funding from the campus's Research Development Grant monies for the project.
Historically, the Stars and Stripes is a series of newspapers published independently for the United States military. The publication first appeared during the Civil War, in Bloomfield, Missouri, and currently exists to report information on conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere as well as to provide a daily newspaper for our military worldwide. The newspaper is free of censorship and currently appears in five separate editions: Mideast, Europe, Japan, Korea and Okinawa,
The book being proposed, according to Dr. Manlove, should have a wide audience, attracting readers with an interest in military history and journalism, as well as those with an interest in cultural and American studies. As the book's editor, Manlove would be responsible for organizing its contents as well as authoring its introduction, annotating material selected for inclusion, and the head notes for each of the book's seven chapters.
Manlove's research program at Penn State Greater Allegheny has been geared to postcolonial studies and transatlantic culture of the twentieth century. In this regard, the Stars and Stripes is a significant historical document, chronicling the development of America in terms of its culture and its overseas military and colonial involvements. According to Manlove's proposal the military newspaper is "not only a measure of the health of independent journalism over time, it also marks American attitudes towards other cultures."
Manlove's work on the anthology will require travel to the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library in Bloomfield, MO and to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Additional support for the project is being sought from other sources.