{"product_id":"a-sense-of-power-9780801447891","title":"A Sense of Power","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eA Sense of Power\u003c\/i\u003e, John A. Thompson takes a long view of America's dramatic rise as a world power, from the late nineteenth century into the post–World War II era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Sense of Power\u003c\/i\u003e is a deft, literary, and persuasive analysis of America's twentieth-century evolution from the world’s largest neutral nation to its most interventionist. Coming from a British observer and a historian of the Progressive Era who brings a fresh eye to foreign policy, it is more piquant and original than the title suggests.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Elizabeth Cobbs * Passport *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the liberal historian John Thompson shows in \u003ci\u003eA Sense of Power\u003c\/i\u003e, it was neither the threat that the Germans and Japanese posed to the US mainland that drove the country into the war, nor the imperative to secure international markets, since the US economy in the 1940s was overwhelmingly based on domestic growth and consumption. The chief motive behind America's entry into the war, Thompson argues persuasively, was that its leaders realised that it would cost them relatively little to bend the world in the political direction they wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Thomas Meaney * London Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor readers unacquainted with the history of American foreign policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Thompson's work will serve as a deeply informative introduction, one that successfully walks the fine line between dry academic reportage and trivia-based 'popular' history.... As a historian rather than a political scientist, Thompson is perhaps ideologically predisposed towards demonstrating the complexity of the world through the lens of individual events rather than concerned with objective, generalizable relationships between larger, transhistorical variables. Were this to be Thompson's true, unstated goal, then the value of his historical explanation would only increase, even as the value of his theoretical edifice would recede even further.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Alexander Kirss * The National Interest *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThompson has written a provocative, thoughtful overview of U.S. foreign policy from the 1890s to the 1950s. In a non-polemical manner, Thompson vividly outlines many shortcomings in the realist and revisionist critiques of American foreign policy. He cogently and skillfully reviews the literature, raises the level of debate, and offers a wise and thoughtful analysis of his own.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Melvyn P. Leffler * H-Diplo *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis argument—based as it is on shared understandings and social relations among the American and trans-Atlantic elite—is far more specific and persuasive than the vague \"consciousness\" or \"a sense of power\" animating American actions to which Thompson alludes repeatedly throughout the work. Yet even this claim, central to his thesis, is weakly identfied.\u003c\/p\u003e * International Studies Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction: The Problem\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePower as an Explanation\u003cbr\u003e Security as an Explanation\u003cbr\u003e Economic Interests as an Explanation\u003cbr\u003e Missionary Ideology as an Explanation\u003cbr\u003e Seeking an Answer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 1. A New Sense of Power\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Expansion of Foreign Policy\u003cbr\u003e The Limits of Expansion\u003cbr\u003e Explaining the Limitations\u003cbr\u003e The Sense of Power\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 2. Advance and Retreat, 1914–1920\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe European War and American Opinion\u003cbr\u003e Wilson's Initial Policy\u003cbr\u003e The Impact of the U-Boat\u003cbr\u003e Increasing Involvement and Commitments\u003cbr\u003e Going to War\u003cbr\u003e Fighting the War and Preparing for Peace\u003cbr\u003e The Limits of Power: The Paris Peace Conference\u003cbr\u003e The Failure to Join the League of Nations\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 3. A Restrained Superpower, 1920–1938\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Character of U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1920s\u003cbr\u003e The Apogee of Isolationism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 4. Lessening Restraint, 1938–1941\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Erosion of Neutrality\u003cbr\u003e The Impact of the Fall of France\u003cbr\u003e Explaining the Move toward Involvement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 5. Full-Scale Involvement, 1941–1945\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eWielding Global Power\u003cbr\u003e The Discrediting of \"Isolationism\"\u003cbr\u003e What Kind of Internationalism?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 6. Assuming \"the Responsibilities of Power,\" 1945–1952\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Commitment to Western Europe\u003cbr\u003e Doing More with More\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eConclusion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405132636503,"sku":"9780801447891","price":22.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-sense-of-power-9780801447891","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}