Author Description

Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, this reader uses a carefully selected group of primary sources and analytical essays to allow students to test the interpretations of distinguished historians and draw their own conclusions about the history of American foreign policy. This text serves as an effective educational tool for courses on U.S. foreign policy, recent U.S. history, or 20th Century U.S. history. Some of the new literature spotlights cultural relations, and the ways in which culturally constructed attitudes about class, gender, race, and national identity have shaped American's perceptions of the world and subsequently its overseas relationships. In this volume, almost one-half of the essays are new, including selections by Laura McEnaney, Michael L. Krenn, Walter A. Hixson, Robert W. Tucker, Erez Manela, Victoria de Grazia, Thomas F. O'Brien, John Lewis Gaddis, Andrew J. Rotter, Chen Jian, Vladislov Zubok, Michelle Mart, Christina Klein, Randall Woods, Jeremi Suri, Carol Eisenberg, Salim Yaquib, Melvyn P. Leffler, Arne Odd Westad, and George C. Herring. This new edition includes expanded coverage of U.S. policy toward the Third World. New selections explore the U.S. presence in Latin America during the interwar era and the Middle East during the early Cold War and the era of detente. Others examine U.S. relations with Southeast Asia prior to U.S. military escalation in the Vietnam War and the negotiations pursued by the Richard Nixon administration to end that conflict. Recently released documents on Ronald Reagan's presidency and the end of the Cold War have also been added. Finally, the last chapter had been revised to focus on the administration of George W. Bush and its response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, including the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.