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In My Time is a vivid account of the fascinating life of Robert
Strausz-Hupe, who served American presidents for twenty years in a
variety of diplomatic posts. It is a life filled with both
excitement and tragedy. In this autobiography, Strausz-Hupe covers
a wide range of topics, including his youth in Vienna, his familial
background, and his schooling. The author also discusses his
emigration to the United States, describing his initial impressions
of the country as well as how he viewed the changes that were
occurring in American society and culture. Strausz-Hupe has written
a poignant introduction for the republication of this volume. He
explains how he reaches out to history for an explanation of who he
is as an individual. Just as entire nations should learn from
history, so should individuals, as Strausz-Hupe has attempted to do
in his autobiography. Robert Strausz-Hupe is one of those
increasingly rare, universally educated men whose minds conform
only to their own beliefs and findings. His views of events such as
the rise of German Nazism, or Chinese Communism, or the world of
the theater in Europe between the two world wars are always fresh,
exciting, and informed. In My Time will be enjoyed by all who read
it, especially historians, political theorists, and policymakers.
Since World War I, the United States has pursued the defense of
Western civilization as a critical element of its own national
interest. In his provocative reconsideration of that goal, Robert
Strausz-Hupe asks whether the American people can still agree upon
and adopt foreign policies consistently devoted to that end. He
specifically examines popular and paradoxical attitudes that often
undermine Washington's ability to defend American and Western
interests, attitudes towards society and the state, politics and
government, instruments of foreign policy and the people who wield
them. As the backdrop for his analysis, Strausz-Hupe employs the
wisdom of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, reiterating
Tocqueville's finding that the driving force of American life is
its passion for equality and democracy. To this insight,
Strausz-Hupe adds another: When one realizes that domestic politics
is the driving force behind foreign policy, one understands why
"the foreign policy of the United States cannot be other than the
defense of democracy everywhere." Unlike some analysts, however,
Strausz-Hupe believes that this proposition states only the problem
for American statesmen not the answer. The answer, Strausz-Hupe
concludes, lies in a universal federation of democratic states. In
an appreciative foreword that examines the evolution of
Strausz-Hupe thought, Walter A. McDougall demonstrates that this
idealistic vision of a democratic world-state has been the unifying
thread in Strausz-Hupe's intellectual career, not the calculating
Realpolitik so often attributed to him. Democracy and American
Foreign Policy will be of central importance to international
relations specialists, policymakers, political scientists, and
students of political philosophy. Its chapters include "Tocqueville
and Nationalism"; "Tocqueville and Marx"; "The Hypocrisies of
Egalitarianism"; "Foreign Policy and Interest Groups"; and
"Isolationism and the New World Order."
Additional Contributor Is Charles Malik. Foreword By Paul R.
Anderson.
Additional Authors Include E. C. Ropes, Bryce Wood, Ellis O.
Briggs, Galo Plaza, And Robert Henry Hadow. Preface By Nicholas
Murray Butler. Introduction By Arthur P. Whitaker.
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