Description
Book SynopsisIn 1941 the magazine publishing titan Henry R. Luce urged the nation's leaders to create an American Century. But in the post-World-War-II era proponents of the American Century faced a daunting task. Even so, Luce had articulated an animating idea that, as William O. Walker III skillfully shows in The Rise and Decline of the American Century, would guide United States foreign policy through the years of hot and cold war.
The American Century was, Walker argues, the counter-balance to defensive war during World War II and the containment of communism during the Cold War. American policymakers pursued an aggressive agenda to extend U.S. influence around the globe through control of economic markets, reliance on nation-building, and, where necessary, provision of arms to allied forces. This positive program for the expansion of American power, Walker deftly demonstrates, came in for widespread criticism by the late 1950s. A changing world, epitomized by the nonaligned mov
Trade Review
An impressively detailed account of U.S. foreign policy in the early postwar decades.
* Foreign Affairs *
Walker's book is meticulously researched, packed with authoritative knowledge steeped in archival research and deep appreciation for how the world looks from Washington, D.C., conditioned by recent historical work providing agency to the non-West.
* The Journal of American History *
In this lucid and persuasive work... [William O. Walker] provides a thought-provoking and original prism through which to view this pivotal period.
* Diplomatic History *
Table of ContentsPreface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Henry R. Luce and the Security Ethos
Part 1: The Rise of the American Century
1. Pursuing Hegemony
2. Protecting the Free World
3. Seeking Order and Stability
4. Sustaining Leadership
Part 2: The Decline of the American Century
5. Bearing Burdens
6. Contending with Decline
7. Attaining Primacy
Conclusion: An Improbable Quest
Notes
Index
