Between Virtue and Power : The Persistent Moral Dilemma of U.S. Foreign Policy / D. W. Mertz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mertz, D. W., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imperialism--History.

Imperialism.

Virtue--Political aspects--United States--History.

Virtue.

Power (Social sciences)--United States--Historty.

Power (Social sciences).

United States--Foreign relations.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Moral and ethical aspects.

United States--Foreign relations--Philosophy.

United States--Territorial expansion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2008]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this survey of U.S. history, John Kane looks at the tensions between American virtue and power and how those tensions have influenced foreign policy. Americans have long been suspicious of power as a threat to individual liberty, Kane argues, and yet the growth of national power has been perceived as a natural byproduct of American virtue. This contradiction has posed a persistent crisis that has influenced the trajectory of American diplomacy and foreign relations for more than two hundred years. Kane examines the various challenges, including emerging Nationalism, isolationism, and burgeoning American power, which have at times challenged not only foreign policy but American national identity. The events of September 11, 2001, rekindled Americans' sense of righteousness, the author observes, but the subsequent use of power in Iraq has raised questions about the nation's virtue and, as in earlier days, cast a deep shadow over its purpose and direction.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Origins and Significance of the American Mythology

3. Founding a Virtuous Republic

4. Problems of Virtue and Power

5. Nonentanglement

6. Nonentanglement

7. Innocent Virtue and the Conquest of a Continent

8. From Imperialism to World Peace

9. Woodrow Wilson and the Reign of Virtue

10. Disillusionment and Hope

11. American Isolation

12. American Virtue and the Soviet Challenge

13. Anticommunism and American Virtue

14. Cold War Ironies

15. Vietnam

16. Putting Humpty Together Again

17. Offended Innocence, Righteous Wrath

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300151718

0300151713

OCLC:

884499542