The Ambiguous Legacy: U.S. Foreign Relations in the 'American Century'

Product Description


This timely collection of essays offers one of the first serious efforts to assess the record of American foreign policy over the course of the twentieth century. The essays comprise the work of political scientists as well as historians, conservatives as well as liberals, foreign scholars as well as Americans. Taking off from Henry Luce's vision of an "American century," the authors discuss such important topics as the American conception of the national interest, the tension between democracy and capitalism, the U. S. role in both the developed and underdeveloped worlds, party politics and foreign policy, the significance of race in American foreign relations, and the cultural impact of American diplomacy on the world at large. The result is a lively collection of essays by authors who often disagree but who nonetheless provide the reader with keen insights about the past and provocative views of the future.


Review


"The book is comprehensive in scope, covering issues from foreign policy making, to race, the Third World, non-governmental organizations, consumerism, philanthropy, and cultural imperialism. It is also coherent, which is quite an accomplishment given its size and scope. . . .there is something to interest everyone here." International Journal


Book Description


This collection of essays assesses the record of American foreign policy during the twentieth century. The authors discuss key topics ranging from the American conception of the national interest to the cultural impact of American diplomacy on the world at large.


About the Author


Michael J. Hogan is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Springfield. Hogan is the author of A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945 1954 (2000); Informal Entente: The Private Structure of Cooperation in Anglo-American Economic Diplomacy, 1918 1928 (1977); and The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947 1952 (1987). He is co-editor of Explaining American Foreign Relations History, 2nd edition (with Thomas G. Paterson, Cambridge, 2003). Professor Hogan is a former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and served for fifteen years as editor of its journal, Diplomatic History.