Description
Book SynopsisThroughout the twentieth century, the U.S. government willingly deployed power, hard and soft, to protect American investments all around the globe. Why did the United States get into the business of defending its citizens' property rights abroad? The Empire Trap looks at how modern U.S. involvement in the empire business began, how American foreig
Trade Review"[T]his is a very good book--cogently argued, detailed, and well-written."--Politics Reader "The Empire Trap represents an important addition to scholarship on twentieth century U.S. foreign policy. Maurer convincingly demonstrates that American investments in foreign countries were repeatedly threatened by expropriating governments and that in countless instances the United States utilized a variety of methods to protect those investments or to ensure fair compensation when they were lost."--Jeffrey Malanson, Enterprise & Society "It is impressive not only for its scope ... but also for its attention to detail in each of the cases presented. Most important, Maurer's analysis brilliantly captures a big picture that challenges much of the conventional wisdom showing how a small number of private investors draw government into one international quagmire after another because it was the only way they could have their property rights enforced."--Alan Dye, EH.Net "This is an exemplary work of historical social science, shedding light on many debates within the international relations literature."--Michael J. Lee, Perspectives on Politics
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii One Introduction 1 Two Avoiding the Trap 25 Three Setting the Trap 58 Four The Trap Closes 89 * Box 1. The Mexican Exception 137 Five Banana Republicanism 148 Six Escaping by Accident 188 Seven Falling Back In 245 Eight The Empire Trap and the Cold War 313 * Box 2. Ethiopia and Nicaragua 347 Nine The Success of the Empire Trap 350 Ten Escaping by Design? 387 Eleven The Empire Trap in the Twenty-first Century 433 Notes 453 Index 537
