In this volume, Hamilton deals with some of the antecedents and
the outcome of the Spanish-American war, specifically, the
acquisition of an American empire. It critiques the "progressive"
view of those events, questioning the notion that businessmen (and
compliant politicians) aggressively sought new markets,
particularly those of Asia. Hamilton shows that United States'
exports continued to go, predominantly, to the major European
nations. The progressive tradition has focused on empire,
specifically on the Philippines depicted as a stepping stone to the
China market. Hamilton shows that the Asian market remained
minuscule in the following decades, and that other historical works
have neglected the most important change in the nation's trade
pattern, the growth of the Canada market, which two decades after
the 1898 war, became the United States' largest foreign market.
The book begins with a review and criticism of the basic
assumptions of the progressive framework. These are, first, that
the nation is ruled by big business (political leaders being
compliant co-workers). Second, that those businessmen are zealous
profit seekers. And third, that they are well-informed rational
decision-makers. A further underlying assumption is that the
economy was not functioning well in the 1890s and that a need for
new markets was recognized as an urgent necessity, so that big
business, accordingly, demanded world power and empire. Each of
these assumptions, pivotal elements in the dominant progressive
tradition in historical writing, is challenged, with an alternative
viewpoint presented.
Hamilton presents a different, more complex view of the events
following the Spanish-American War. The class-dominance theory is
not supported. The alternative argued here, elitism, proves
appropriate and more useful. This review and assessment of
arguments about American expansion in the 1890s adds much to the
literature of the period.
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