The American Age: United States Foreign

In this leading text, Walter LaFeber offers a comprehensive history of American foreign relations from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. His narrative account features several major themes: the connections between U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics; the impact of American economic development on foreign policy interests; popular culture, particularly film, as a filter for public opinion on American commitments abroad; the roles of public opinion, leadership, and bureaucracy in the formation of policy.

List of Maps

xi

Preface to the Second Edition

xiii

Preface to the First Edition

xvii

The Roots of American Foreign Policy (1492--1789)

5

(35)

The Beginnings: Gold, God, and Paradise

5

(3)

The City on a Hill---and on the Water

8

(2)

The First Americans

10

(1)

The American ``Multiplication Table'' and the European Power Struggle

11

(2)

Benjamin Franklin and the Problems of a Rising People

13

(2)

The Road to Revolution (1763--1775)

15

(3)

The Foreign Policy of Independence (1776)

18

(3)

The French Trap

21

(6)

Bittersweet Results of Peace

27

(1)

To the Constitution: ``What Will Render Us Respectable Abroad?''

28

(4)

The ``Grand Machine'' of the Constitution

32

(2)

Great Losers: The Antifederalists

34

(1)

Notes

35

(2)

For Further Reading

37

(3)

A Second Struggle for Independence and Union (1789--1815)

40

(31)

Liberty and Empires

40

(2)

The Framework: The United States (1789--1814)

42

(3)

Chosen People, the British Empire, and the French Revolution

45

(3)

A Turn: From Jay to X Y Z

48

(4)

Jefferson and Louisiana

52

(6)

The Second War for Independence and Union

58

(5)

From Near-Catastrophe to Near-Victory

63

(4)

Notes

67

(2)

For Further Reading

69

(2)

The First, the Last: John Quincy Adams and the Monroe Doctrine (1815--1828)

71

(23)

Windmills, Clipper Ships, and Good Feelings

71

(3)

Adams

74

(3)

Setting the Stage

77

(1)

The Transcontinental Treaty

78

(2)

Opening ``A Great Tragic Volume''---and July 4, 1821

80

(3)

The Monroe Doctrine

83

(5)

Great Losers: Adams the President

88

(3)

Notes

91

(1)

For Further Reading

92

(2)

The Amphibious Expansion of a Sixty-Five-Hundred-Thousand-Horsepower Steam Engine (1828--1850)

94

(36)

The Context: Manifest Destiny and Railroads in Russia

94

(5)

Removing Native Americans

99

(2)

The Road to China

101

(3)

Texas, Maria Child, and James K. Polk

104

(4)

Webster, Polk, and Looking John Bull in the Eye

108

(7)

The ``Fire-Brand in the Body'': The Mexican War and Slavery

115

(6)

Two Near-Misses and a Near-Settlement

121

(3)

Manifest Destiny in Central America

124

(1)

The Legacies of Manifest Destiny and James K. Polk

125

(1)

Notes

126

(2)

For Further Reading

128

(2)

The Climax of Early U.S. Foreign Policy: The Civil War (1850--1865)

130

(27)

Foreign Policy as a Cause of the Civil War

130

(2)

Young America: South, North, and at Home

132

(3)

Whigs and Asia

135

(3)

Seward: Prophet of U.S.-Russian Relations

138

(3)

Central America and Cuba

141

(4)

Lincoln and the Foreign-Policy Dreams of 1860--1861

145

(4)

The Diplomacy of the Civil War

149

(4)

Notes

153

(2)

For Further Reading

155

(2)

Laying the Foundations for ``Superpowerdom'' (1865--1896)

157

(36)

Legacies of the Civil War

157

(2)

The Context of the Era: Triumph and Tragedy

159

(6)

A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: The Alaska Purchase and a Backlash

165

(2)

A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: Winning the West

167

(4)

A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: Africa and Latin America

171

(7)

A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: The Pacific and Asia

178

(5)

The 1865-to-1896 Era: A Conclusion

183

(4)

Notes

187

(2)

For Further Reading

189

(4)

Turning Point: The McKinley Years (1896--1900)

193

(39)

The Significance of the Late 1890s

193

(1)

McKinley and McKinleyism

194

(3)

Two Crises, One War

197

(5)

``A Splendid Little War...''

202

(7)

...For Control of Cuba and Puerto Rico

209

(3)

...And the Conquest of the Filipinos

212

(5)

McKinley's Triumphs in China

217

(7)

...And a Final Triumph at Home

224

(3)

Notes

227

(3)

For Further Reading

230

(2)

The Search for Opportunity: Rough Riders and Dollar Diplomats (1901--1913)

232

(37)

Theodore Roosevelt and Twentieth-Century U.S. Foreign Policy

232

(4)

The American Search for Opportunity: A New Presidency for a New Foreign Policy

236

(3)

East, North, and South to an Isthmian Canal

239

(6)

A Great Departure: The Roosevelt Corollary

245

(5)

The Fateful Triangle: The United States, China, and Japan, 1900--1908

250

(6)

Taft, Knox, and Dollar Diplomacy

256

(2)

Dollar Diplomacy in Asia

258

(2)

Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America and Canada

260

(3)

The Irony of 1900--1913

263

(2)

Notes

265

(2)

For Further Reading

267

(2)

Wilsonians, Revolutions, and War (1913--1917)

269

(33)

The World of Woodrow Wilson

269

(5)

Wilson and Revolution: China

274

(3)

Wilson and Revolutions: Mexico (or, Painting the Fence Post White)

277

(4)

Wilson and Revolutions: Central America and the Caribbean

281

(3)

The United States and World War I: Legality versus Neutrality (1914--1916)

284

(7)

The Decisions for War (1916--1917)

291

(6)

Notes

297

(2)

For Further Reading

299

(3)

Victors without Peace (1917--1920)

302

(33)

Wilson's Approach to War and Peace

302

(2)

Over There: The Western Front

304

(3)

Over There: In Soviet Russia

307

(6)

Preparing for Paris

313

(3)

The ``Black Cloud'' over Paris

316

(3)

At Paris: The Price of the Covenant

319

(3)

At Paris: A ``Sanitary Cordon'' Instead of a ``Sanitary Europe''

322

(3)

In Washington: The Defect of the Covenant

325

(5)

Notes

330

(2)

For Further Reading

332

(3)

U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State

335

(4)

General Bibliography

339

(6)

Acknowledgments to the First Edition

345

(2)

Photo Credits

347

(2)

Index

349

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The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, Vol. 1: To 1920

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