Description
Book SynopsisAmerica and the Just War Tradition examines and evaluates each of America's major wars from a just war perspective. Using moral analysis that is anchored in the just war tradition, the contributors provide careful historical analysis evaluating individual conflicts.
Each chapter explores the causes of a particular war, the degree to which the justice of the conflict was a subject of debate at the time, and the extent to which the war measured up to traditional ad bellum and in bello criteria. Where appropriate, contributors offer post bellum considerations, insofar as justice is concerned with helping to offer a better peace and end result than what had existed prior to the conflict.
This fascinating exploration offers policy guidance for the use of force in the world today, and will be of keen interest to historians, political scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as policy makers and the general reading public.
Contributor
Trade Review
“This collection has the capacity to bethe reference point for just war theory in relation to American wars from colonial origins to today. It deserves a wide readership. The editors are extremely knowledgeable and their arguments cohere.”—Harry Stout, Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History, Yale University
"These wise, penetrating essays offer a dispassionate moral assessment of the justice of past American wars from the just war perspective. The editors’ superb introductory chapter on the just war tradition provides the foundation for the eleven case studies on U.S. wars—from the Revolutionary War to recent post–Cold War conflict in Afghanistan. This book is an important contribution to the applied ethics of just war reasoning." —Mark R. Amstutz, emeritus, Wheaton College
"Many recently published and revised books discuss the just war tradition with the aid of case studies or historical examples, but I cannot think of any recent book that focuses solely on the ethics of a subset of US wars. The book is very readable for anyone in academic humanities and even for non-academics. America and the Just War Tradition succeeds admirably as a general introduction. It provides a jumping-off point for deeper analysis of the ethics of particular wars." —James L. Cook, United States Air Force Academy
“This compilation of essays gives a historical and moral framework to understand what . . . any of the millions of American servicemen were doing anywhere the United States has fought over the last 250 or so years.” —Law & Liberty
“Whether one is a historian who hopes to learn more about America’s conflicts, a philosopher who works in ethics or political philosophy, or a soldier of veteran who enjoys military history, America and the Just War Tradition addresses each of these topics and audiences from a variety of authors in a range of disciplines.” —Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy
"The scholarship on display in each instance is exemplary. There is no browbeating here, no polemics, no special pleading, no Whiggery, just thoughtful analysis that offers a careful weighing of the evidence that is sensitive to, but not overwhelmed by, the demands of historical context. ...A superior book and a very welcome addition to the just war canon." —Journal of Church and State
"This fascinating exploration offers policy guidance for the use of force in the world today, and will be of keen interest to historians, political scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as policy makers and the general reading public." —Law and Religion Forum
Table of ContentsForeword by James Turner Johnson
- The Just War Tradition and America’s Wars by J. Daryl Charles and Mark David Hall
- “Fear, Honor, and Interest”: The Unjust Motivations and Outcomes of the American Revolutionary War by John D. Roche
- The War of 1812 by Jonathan Den Hartog
- James K. Polk and the War with Mexico by Daniel Walker Howe
- The Fractured Union and the Justification for War by Gregory Jones
- Just War and the Spanish-American War by Timothy J. Demy
- The Great War, the United States, and Just War Thought by Jonathan H. Ebel
- The United States and Japan in the Second World War: A Just War Perspective by Kerry E. Irish
- America’s Ambiguous “Police Action”: The Korean Conflict by Laura Jane Gifford
- Vietnam and the Just War Tradition by Mackubin Thomas Owens
- The First and Second Gulf Wars by Darrell Cole
- The War on Terror and Afghanistan by Rouven Steeves
Acknowledgements
About the Contributors
