Isolationism : a history of America's efforts to shield itself from the world / Charles A. Kupchan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kupchan, Charles, author.

Contributor:

Sylvia W. Kauders Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Isolationism.

History.

International relations.

United States--Foreign relations--History.

United States.

Isolationism--United States--History.

Diplomatic relations.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 446 pages ; 25 cm

Other Title:

History of America's efforts to shield itself from the world

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"The United States is in the midst of a bruising debate about its role in the world. Not since the interwar era have Americans been so divided over the scope and nature of their engagement abroad. President Donald Trump's America First approach to foreign policy certainly amplified the controversy. His isolationist, unilateralist, protectionist, and anti-immigrant proclivities marked a sharp break with the brand of internationalism that the country had embraced since World War II. But Trump's election was a symptom as much as a cause of the nation's rethink of its approach to the world. Decades of war in the Middle East with little to show for it, rising inequality and the hollowing out of the nation's manufacturing sector, political paralysis over how to fix a dysfunctional immigration policy--these and other trends have been causing Americans to ask legitimate questions about whether U.S. grand strategy has been working to their benefit. Adding to the urgent and passionate nature of this conversation is China's rise and the threat it poses to the liberal international order that took shape during the era of the West's material and ideological dominance. Isolationism speaks directly to this unfolding debate over the future of the nation's engagement with the world. It does so primarily by looking back, by probing America's isolationist past. Although most Americans know little about it, the United States in fact has an impressive isolationist pedigree. In his Farewell Address of 1796, President George Washington set the young nation on a clear course: "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." The isolationist impulse embraced by Washington and the other Founders guided the nation for much of its history prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. American Isolationism: Past as Prelude?

2. An Anatomy of Isolationism

pt. I THE ERA OF ISOLATIONISM, 1789-1898

3. The Revolutionary Era: Contemplating Nonentanglement 6s

4. From the French Revolution to the War of 1812: Isolationism as Doctrine

5. Westward Expansion and the Monroe Doctrine: The Limits of Hemispheric Ambition

6. The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Rise of American Power: Restraint Amid Ascent

pt. II THE DEFEAT OF REALIST AND IDEALIST INTERNATIONALISM, 1898-1941

7. The Spanish-American War and the Onset of Imperial Ambition

8. Republican imperialism and the Isolationist Backlash

9. Wilsonian Idealism and the Isolationist Backlash

10. The 1920s: Influence without Responsibility

11. From the Great Depression to Pearl Harbor: Delusions of Strategic Immunity

pt. III THE RISE AND FALL OF LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM, 1941-2020

12. World War II and the Cold War: The Era of Liberal Internationalism

13. The End of the Cold War, Overreach, and the Isolationist Comeback

14. Where Isolationism and Liberal Internationalism Meet: The Search for a Middle Ground.

Notes:

"A council on Foreign Relations Book" - per title page.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-427) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sylvia W. Kauders Fund.

ISBN:

9780199393022

0199393028

OCLC:

1143631739

Publisher Number:

99985676693