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The Imperial Moment (Hardcover)
Kimberly Kagan; Contributions by Paul Bushkovitch, Nicholas Canny, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Arthur Eckstein, …
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R2,240
Discovery Miles 22 400
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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In a provocative study on comparative empire, noted historians
identify periods of transition across history that reveal how and
why empires emerge. Loren J. Samons on Athens and Arthur Eckstein
on Rome examine classical Western empires. Nicholas Canny discusses
the British experience, Paul Bushkovitch analyzes the case of
imperial Russia, and Pamela Kyle Crossley studies Qing China s
beginnings. Frank Ninkovich tackles the actions of the United
States at the turn of the twentieth century, which many view as
imperial behavior.
What were the critical characteristics that distinguished the
imperial period of the state from its pre-imperial period? When did
the state develop those characteristics sufficiently to be called
an empire? The authors indicate the domestic political, social,
economic, or military institutions that made empire formation
possible and address how intentional the transition to empire was.
They investigate the actions that drove imperial consolidation and
consider the international environment in which the empire formed.
Kimberly Kagan provides a concluding essay that probes the
historical cases for insights into policymaking and the nature of
imperial power.
For most of this century, American foreign policy was guided by a
set of assumptions that were formulated during World War I by
President Woodrow Wilson. In this incisive reexamination, Frank
Ninkovich argues that the Wilsonian outlook, far from being a
crusading, idealistic doctrine, was reactive, practical, and
grounded in fear. Wilson and his successors believed it absolutely
essential to guard against world war or global domination, with the
underlying aim of safeguarding and nurturing political harmony and
commercial cooperation among the great powers. As the world entered
a period of unprecedented turbulence, Wilsonianism became a "crisis
internationalism" dedicated to preserving the benign vision of
"normal internationalism" with which the United States entered the
twentieth century.
In the process of describing Wilson's legacy, Ninkovich
reinterprets most of the twentieth century's main foreign policy
developments. He views the 1920s, for example, not as an
isolationist period but as a reversion to Taft's Dollar Diplomacy.
The Cold War, with its faraway military interventions, illustrates
Wilsonian America's preoccupation with achieving a cohesive world
opinion and its abandonment of traditional, regional conceptions of
national interest.
"The Wilsonian Century" offers a striking alternative to
traditional interest-based interpretations of U.S. foreign policy.
In revising the usual view of Wilson's contribution, Ninkovich
shows the extraordinary degree to which Wilsonian ideas guided
American policy through a century of conflict and tension.
For decades the United States has been the most dominant player on
the world's stage. The country's economic authority, its globally
forceful foreign policy, and its leading position in international
institutions tend to be seen as the result of a long-standing,
deliberate drive to become a major global force. Furthermore, it
has become widely accepted that American exceptionalism--the belief
that America is a country like no other in history--has been at the
root of many of the country's political, military, and global
moves. Frank Ninkovich disagrees.
One of the preeminent intellectual historians of our time,
Ninkovich delivers here his most ambitious and sweeping book to
date. He argues that historically the United States has been driven
not by a belief in its destiny or its special character but rather
by a need to survive the forces of globalization. He builds the
powerful case that American foreign policy has long been based on
and entangled in questions of global engagement, while also showing
that globalization itself has always been distinct from--and
sometimes in direct conflict with--what we call international
society.
In the second half of the twentieth century, the United States
unexpectedly stumbled into the role of global policeman and was
forced to find ways to resolve international conflicts that did not
entail nuclear warfare. The United States's decisions were based
less in notions of exceptionalism and more in a need to preserve
and expand a flourishing global society that had become essential
to the American way of life.
Sure to be controversial, "The Global Republic" compellingly and
provocatively counters some of the deepest and most common
misconceptions about America's history and its place in the world.
"Modernity and Power" provides a fresh conceptual overview of
twentieth-century United States foreign policy, from the Roosevelt
and Taft administrations through the presidencies of Kennedy and
Johnson. Beginning with Woodrow Wilson, American leaders gradually
abandoned the idea of international relations as a game of
geopolitical interplays, basing their diplomacy instead on a
symbolic opposition between "world public opinion" and the forces
of destruction and chaos. Frank Ninkovich provocatively links this
policy shift to the rise of a distinctly modernist view of history.
To emphasize the central role of symbolism and ideological
assumptions in twentieth-century American statesmanship, Ninkovich
focuses on the domino theory--a theory that departed radically from
classic principles of political realism by sanctioning intervention
in world regions with few financial or geographic claims on the
national interest. Ninkovich insightfully traces the development of
this global strategy from its first appearance early in the century
through the Vietnam war.
Throughout the book, Ninkovich draws on primary sources to recover
the worldview of the policy makers. He carefully assesses the
coherence of their views rather than judge their actions against
"objective" realities. Offering a new alternative to realpolitic
and economic explanations of foreign policy, "Modernity and Power"
will change the way we think about the history of U.S.
international relations.
"Modernity and Power" provides a fresh conceptual overview of
twentieth-century United States foreign policy, from the Roosevelt
and Taft administrations through the presidencies of Kennedy and
Johnson. Beginning with Woodrow Wilson, American leaders gradually
abandoned the idea of international relations as a game of
geopolitical interplays, basing their diplomacy instead on a
symbolic opposition between "world public opinion" and the forces
of destruction and chaos. Frank Ninkovich provocatively links this
policy shift to the rise of a distinctly modernist view of history.
To emphasize the central role of symbolism and ideological
assumptions in twentieth-century American statesmanship, Ninkovich
focuses on the domino theory--a theory that departed radically from
classic principles of political realism by sanctioning intervention
in world regions with few financial or geographic claims on the
national interest. Ninkovich insightfully traces the development of
this global strategy from its first appearance early in the century
through the Vietnam war.
Throughout the book, Ninkovich draws on primary sources to recover
the worldview of the policy makers. He carefully assesses the
coherence of their views rather than judge their actions against
"objective" realities. Offering a new alternative to realpolitic
and economic explanations of foreign policy, "Modernity and Power"
will change the way we think about the history of U.S.
international relations.
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