Promised Land, Crusader State. The American Encounter With The World Since 1776

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Walter A Mcdougall
Publisher Place: Usa
Publisher Year: 1997
Edition: First Edition

Description: 286 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Pulitzer Prizewinning historian Walter McDougall reinterprets the traditions that have shaped U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to the present in "an entertaining and iconoclastic fashion" (Philadelphia Inquirer). In a concise analysis, McDougall divides American diplomatic history into two stages, which he calls "Old Testament" and "New Testament" phases. The “Old Testament phase, which ran from the Revolution to the 1890s, centered on protecting and perfecting America within. The "New Testament" phase, from the Spanish-American War to the present, is more interventionist, featuring competing ideals of containment, expansion, and meliorism. Within the “testament phases, McDougall goes on to further categorize eight conflicting schools of thought.Conversational in tone and highly educational, readers will appreciate McDougalls astute observations and overview of American foreign policy. Crucially, McDougall contends that by projecting U.S. standards and ideals onto other countries, the U.S. repeatedly overextends its resources and pays too a high a price for assuming such risk. In Promised Land, Crusader State, "McDougall has written a lively and provocative book" (Wall Street Journal) that is "a rich study of the American experience" (Los Angeles Times).

ISBN: 9780395901328