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- A must-read on 20th Century American Foreign Policy
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Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy
Anne Pierce
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
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ASIN: 1412806631 |
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Recurring throughout our history are the ideas that repressive governments are doomed to failure; that liberty is a motivating force; that freedom comes with responsibilities and must be guided by principles; that the example of our democracy is a challenge to all forms of political repression and an inspiration to those desiring to be free. Wilson and Truman took these ideas as the starting point for their policy formulation and pronouncements. Truman both acknowledged his indebtedness to Wilson and learned from his mistakes. This study places the two presidents within the broader American tradition and explores the way they combined reverence for the past with innovative policies. Pierce provides a cohesive argument against those who simplify and categorize American ideals in order to demean them. Her findings show that the assumption that Wilson was an idealist while Truman was a realist distorts our understanding of these men and denies the seriousness of their positions. She reveals Truman's brilliance as a foreign policy strategist and his fervency as a spokesperson for American ideals. He was never willing to dispense with geopolitics for the sake of internationalism, nor with internationalism for the sake of geopolitics, but insisted that our mission and our power were combined threads in our work for freedom. Truman's wisely construed version of Wilsonianism, which itself was an interpretation of America's mission and power, holds great promise for the United States today.
Customer Reviews:
A must-read on 20th Century American Foreign Policy.......2003-06-25
This gets you thinking about the importance of the American foreign policy tradition in a way other books don't-provides a refreshing alternative to the cynical and negative view of American history. The focus on Wilson and Truman leads to a much broader discussion of American ideals and foreign policy. The writing is powerful and the research is persuasive.
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The Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain: History, Rhetoric, and Fiction, 15001800 (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521590698 |
Book Description
These essays by some of the most distinguished historians and literary scholars in the English-speaking world explore the overlap, interplay, and interaction between supposedly truthful history and fact-based fiction in British writing from the Tudor period to the Enlightenment. Despite the many theoretical questions posed, the discussions primarily focus on concrete works, including those of Thomas More, John Foxe, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Edward Gibbon.
Book Description
The 9/11 terrorist attacks starkly recast the U.S. debate on "rogue states." In this new era of vulnerability, should the United States counter the dangers of weapons proliferation and state-sponsored terrorism by toppling regimes or by promoting change in the threatening behavior of their leaders? Regime Change examines the contrasting precedents set with Iraq and Libya and provides incisive analysis of the pressing crises with North Korea and Iran.
A successor to the author's influential Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy (2000), this compelling book clarifies and critiques the terms in which today's vital foreign policy and security debate is being conducted.
Book Description
On the eve of his inauguration as President, Woodrow Wilson commented, 'It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.' As America was drawn into the Great War in Europe, Wilson used his scholarship, his principles, and the political savvy of his advisers to overcome his ignorance of world affairs and lead the country out of isolationism. The product of his efforts-his vision of the United States as a nation uniquely suited for moral leadership by virtue of its democratic tradition-is a view of foreign policy that is still in place today. Acclaimed historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W. Brands offers a clear, well-informed, and timely account of Wilson's unusual route to the White House, his campaign against corporate interests, his struggles with rivals at home and allies abroad, and his decline in popularity and health following the rejection by Congress of his League of Nations. Wilson emerges as a fascinating man of great oratorical power, depth of thought, and purity of intention.
Customer Reviews:
Good Insight Into Wilson.......2006-02-13
H.W. Brands has written ambitious biographies of American historical figures, including a major work on the life of Andrew Jackson. Here, in keeping within the format of the American Presidents Series, Brands has writtten a shorter, but nontheless, insightful work. Wilson might have been a great president but, he was flawed. He was stubborn and uncompromising. Although he suffered a major stroke in his second term, he evidentally had suffered other, less serious strokes over the years. It is difficult to say whether his physical condition led to his unwillingness to yield but, much that could have been accomplished through compromise never came to fruition.
An early sign of Wilson's concreteness appeared during his presidency of Princeton University. There was a dispute as to whether the graduate school should be located on the main campus or at another site. Wilson, a proponent of locating it on campus refused to negotiate a compromise and the project was stalled.
Wilson was a Virginian and his racial attitudes were that of the Jim Crow South. However, being president of Princeton established his credentials as a New Jersey resident and Democratic party leaders put him up for governor of that state. He was elected and he showed remarkable independence as he proposed reforms that disappointed the party leaders and led them to consider him to be an ingrate. Later, when he was elected President of the United States, he continued his reform path in domestic matters.
What defined his presidency was World War I and its aftermath. After the war, Wilson traveled to Europe to negotiate the peace treaty. On a tour of Europe, he was cheered wildly whereever he went. He was a genuine hero. However, in the negotiations England and France sought to impose harsh terms on Germany whereas Wilson sought more leniency. The heart of Wilson's Fourteen points proposal was a League of Nations. This League was included in the treaty and Wilson's next major battle was to get the Senate to ratify it. Here is where Wilson's stubborness did him in. Rather than negotiate with Republicans in the Senate, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, Wilson bypassed them and took his case to the people in a speaking tour. This was not the way to win favor in the Senate.
Wilson's most egregious error, probably compounded by his stroke, was his total unwillingness to yield on one point regarding the League of Nations; i.e. a clause that required members to come to the aid of other members militarily. Republicans in the Senate were concerned that this clause might weaken US sovereignty. They noted that under the Constitution, it was the Senate, not the President who decalred war. Paul Johnson, in his "History of the American People" noted that if one of Great Britain's colonial possessions, such as India, had been attacked, the treaty might require the United states to get involved militarily. Anyway, Wilson refused to allow a reservation which would clarify the United States' understanding of the clause to the satisfaction of Lodge and other concerned Senators. Accordingly, the treaty didn't pass the Senate.
The tragedy of the Wilson presidency is that so much more could have been accomplished. He was a great reformer on domestic issues and was a popular war president. However, his one major flaw kept him from achieving true greatness. Brand does a good job in capturing the essence of Wilson and I recommend this book.
Wilson-lite.......2005-11-01
You must guard your expectations on a biography (especially of a two term president) that only reads 138 pages. However, I thought that H.W. Brands could add his typical free flowing style and story-telling ability to make a completely satisfying short-read. Unfortuantely, Brands delivers his least inspired performance in telling the story of Wilson. Obviously, the context of the project (a short "taste" on the life of Wilson) curtailed Brands style, which I found to be my biggest disappointment.
As a whole - the life of Wilson is fascinating - a great turning point in the life of "liberals" (While Wilson would certainly not be considered a "liberal" by today's standards). Wilson implemented the 8 hour work day, the FTC, and stiffened anti-trust laws.... not to mention a monstrous epidemnic of the flu... and oh yeah.... World War I. Unfortunately - most of these issues are just briefly touched on (The flu epidemic was not even mentioned).
As a whole - I found this to be a fair brief glimpse into the life of Wilson. However, I would have love to read one of Brand's standard 400 pagers on the life of Wilson.
Architect of the Modern Era?.......2004-03-26
No one can truly understand the issues of the modern era without knowledge of of the man who mid-wifed it into existence, Woodrow Wilson. In his biography of Wilson's presidency, Professor H.W. Brands brings his insightful style and keen sense of relationships between critical events. One learns enough from this rather short book to ask the next set of more interesting questions.
Absent Wilson, would there have been a central bank, the Federal Reserve, in the U.S.? How did the Wilson presidency effect the direction of the national income tax? What did Wilson do to foster the growth of centralized federal power in the U.S.?
Absent Wilson's inept diplomacy, would the U.S. have become so involved in World War I, first by funding Britain and France, and then by participating in the combat? Would the Great War have lasted so long and caused so much damage to the fabric of European civilization and colonial influence? Would the world ever have heard of Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini, veterans both of front line combat?
Absent U.S. participation in the European War, would a pedestrian lawyer, and middling state-level politician named Franklin Delano Roosevelt have found his first federal job as Assistant Secretary of the Navy? Would the U.S. ever have bred such soldiers as Douglas MacArthur and Harry Truman, and most of the rest of the list of future political-military leaders of mid-century?
Absent events put into motion by Wilson, would Russia have broken up and descended into a Bolshevik Revolution? Would the Ottoman Empire have dissolved, to spawn the modern politics of the Middle East? Would the concept of League of Nations/world governance ever have gained the traction it did?
Had Wilson never been president, would the U.S. and the world have had a far different 20th Century? Or was Wilson just one man in a particular time of great change? Germany and Italy had been building centralized, debt-financed governance for 40 years by the time Wilson walked into the White House. So did Wilson make history, guide history , or was he merely governed by historical forces whose time had come?
Like it or not, we lived the 20th Century in Wilson's Century, and in the 21st Century we still follow the path he blazed. Wilson's ghost hovers over the plains of the Republic, walks the halls of power in every government building, and touches the lives of every person who draws a breath.
As Expected, a Solid Effort from Brands.......2003-12-11
H.W. Brands' output over the last five years has been enormous. From huge biographies on Theodore Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin to fair-sized books on the California Gold Rush and several major U.S. business figures to a slim volume on Americans' relationship with their federal government, the Texas A&M historian has published at least six books over the last five years that I'm aware of. The four which I've read have had the same qualities: solid scholarship and writing, but nothing flashy or standout about them.
Brands' biography of Woodrow Wilson fits in this pattern. The book is an easy and enjoyable read. The scholarship is solid (I enjoyed reading the short but striking comments for each of the books mentioned in the "selected bibliography"). Occasionally, Brands is even eloquent as when he describes the effect on Wilson of the death of his first wife.
Nevertheless, as with every other book of Brands I've read, "Woodrow Wilson" never soars to become a great work. The reason eludes me. Brands seems to have all the gifts to write a memorable history or biography, but his work remains a little too flat and it fades too quickly from the reader's mind. He does not break out of this mold with "Woodrow Wilson".
Overview of an Idealist.......2003-08-07
The American Presidents series, condensed biographies of individual presidents by eminent historians, makes the lives of our nation's readers accessible for general readers. That said, the books work better when resurrecting the memory of nearly forgotten minor presidents such as Rutheford B. Hayes than they do documenting the accomplishments of major historical figures like Woodrow Wilson. Simply put, Wilson's life was just too full to be given real justice by a 40,000 or so word manuscript.
Limited by the format, Texas A&M Professor of History H.W. Brands gamely gives it his best shot. The author of such first rate works as "TR - The Last Romantic" and "The Age of Gold" recounts Wilson's life, devoting most of the mere 139 pages of narrative to his presidency. It's a good overview, and one that will likely whet the appetite of many readers to know more. Wilson was a strong, controversial and enigmatic leader. A progressive and idealist on the international front, for example, he was still very much a son of the South who strongly supported segregation at home. Brands deals with such events as World War One, the failed battle for ratification of the Versailles peace treaty and Wilson's debilitating 1919 stroke, but doesn't delve much into the details.
Overall, a good if all-too-brief overview of Woodrow Wilson's life.
Book Description
"These essays contain an excellent blend of theory with specific facts and narrative accounts of dealing with terrorism. I don't know of another book which has the sweep of this one, the illustrative detail, and the welcome, refreshing recognition that there is no neat explanation for terrorism. This book will have a major impact on future research."--David F. Musto, Yale School of Medicine
Terrorists and terrorism have become a major force internationally. Hostage-taking and other acts of violence for political ends are common all over the globe. This groundbreaking study sheds new light on the phenomenon of terrorism.
This book examines and explains the nature and sources of terrorists' beliefs, actions, goals, worldviews, and states of mind. Origins of Terrorism addresses, with scholarly responsibility as well as necessary urgency, one of the most vexing intellectual and political challenges of our time.
The contributors to this book bring deep learning and experience in realms that are vital to an understanding of the arenas within which terrorist behavior takes place-arenas such as ideology, nationalism and religion. The authors explore terrorist behavior in its troubling richness and diversity, and identify the ways in which it develops, grows and sustains itself. In addition, they study the mechanisms that enable terrorists to easily carry out violent acts against innocents, as well as the ways in which leaders of governments respond to terrorist actions and threats. Finally, they identify the opportunities for future research in the psychology of terrorism as well as the limits of such research
This collection, under Reich's editorship, will help us to understand terrorism as well as the motivations behind it. Origins of Terrorism, which is being published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback, is an important study which is bound to affect the way we look at world politics.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting and attempted balance.......2005-04-09
Origins of Terrorism attempts to both be balanced and discuss the psychologies of terrorists. The chapter by Martha Crenshaw (I recommend reading her book on terrorism rather than just the chapter) presents the opposing view to the chapter by Post. While interesting, the psychology advanced is mostly the "crazy terrorist" psychology. I didn't get much out of the book, except for the first two chapters and chapter 10. Chapter 10, which discusses terrorist motivations, is incredibly useful. The rest of the book is average but unremarkable.
Oversimplified and Biased.......2003-08-18
This book attempts to account for the root causes of terrorism. However it fails to provide a meticulous analysis of the origins of terrorism. For example, consider the author's analysis of islamic fanaticism. According to Reich, muslim terrorists, driven by an ardent religious conviction, target western modernism as they despise the Western way of life. In support of his assertion, Reich uses quotes from the Quaran which have been taken out of their proper context. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Islam knows that Islam teaches piety, tolerance, empathy and equality before God (please check the Quaran for corroboration of this). Moreover murder is justifiable only in self-defense. Subsequently, claiming that Islamic fundamentalism emerged as a result of an extreme interpretation of the Quaran is preposterous. The author further asserts that Hezbollah uses religion as a justification for its abhorrent atrocities. Trying to explain the underlying motives of Hezbollah's ideology without even taking into account the 22-years long Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon is indicative of poor scholaship and gross oversimplification. In my view it was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which triggered the emergence of these resistance groups. The real causes of terrorism are Western imperialism, gross economic inequalities, oppression, abject poverty, Western exploitation of the Middle East's enormous oil fields, imposition of Western values and US capitalism, US constant interventions and support for oppressive governments like Saudi-Arabia, Israel etc. These are the root causes and unless we acknowledge them it will be extremely difficult to obliterate terrorism. It is like treating a patient but having a wrong diagnosis. Another disadvantage of this book is the fact that it almost exclusively focuses on Islamic fundamentalism; no account of Jewish and Christian terrorism is given. This seriously undermines the book's purpose and makes it biased. This book does however provide a thorough account of psychological factors which contribute to the rise of terrorism but these are merely of secondary importance. Interesting read but lacks a detailed analysis.
About a year too soon.......2003-03-19
This informative book covers all aspects of terrorism - the warped psyches driving the murderous events, historical setting, goals, leaders and particularly the religious, ethnic and ideological forces behind terrorism. While 99.99% of all world terrorism has its roots in the Middle East, it has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Even more important than the barbarous acts, though, is the development of a framework within which one both justifies and excuses terrorism. Never before has the claim been made that it is morally permissible to kill innocent men, women and children for any reason. Never before have there been so many willing not only to forgive but also to forget these deeds done in the name of an esoteric idea.
Perhaps the most important development, and one discussed in detail, is the merging of Islamic fundamentalism and the Left throughout the world. In a sense it was inevitable: Both are virulently anti-Western, both advocate violence and both support
- and get support from - totalitarian regimes. Mainly due to the identification with the USSR and its support for Arab causes, the Left has moved steadily into an anti-Israeli/Jewish pro-Arab/Palestinian stand. One can trace both the physical evolution of Palestinian terror groups (unorganized local groups to world network) and ideological evolution (from local issues to global terrorist concerns). This is most evident in Europe, especially France and Germany. The two share a dubious honor: France is the intellectual home of modern anti-Semitism and Germany is where the logical fruition of these "ideas" was practiced.
Another danger of terrorism is that of disproportion. The number of people required for maximum damage has been steadily dwindling - from mass armies, to small units, to spies to ordinary individuals. Terrorism thrives because of this disproportionate power. This is a disturbing yet satisfying read and the author is to be commended for excellent research.
Excellent Foundational Book on "Terrorist" Behavior.......1999-02-11
This book presents to its readers a clear foundation of the factors that lie behind the use of violence by groups, states, and/or individuals to gain their objectives.
The two primary articles in the book by Martha Crenshaw and Jerrold Post present two opposing views of the logic that lies behind political violent activity ("terrorists" activity). The case studies in the rest of the book support these two primary articles.
Any researcher in the field of political violence studies must have this book in their library.
Book Description
In his widely acclaimed To End All Wars, Thomas Knock provides an intriguing, often provocative narrative of Woodrow Wilson's epic quest for a new world order. The account follows Wilson's thought and diplomacy from his policy toward revolutionary Mexico, through his dramatic call for "Peace without Victory" in World War I, to the Senate's rejection of the League of Nations. Throughout Knock explores the place of internationalism in American politics, sweeping away the old view that isolationism was the cause of Wilson's failure and revealing the role of competing visions of internationalism--conservative and progressive.
Customer Reviews:
Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.......2005-03-30
This book is about Woodrow Wilson's quest for a new world order during and after WW I, especially his strong desire for the creation of a League of Nations which would mediate all future disputes between nations. The U.S. Senate, of course, voted it down. I found it interesting how the country (and Wilson) had strong socialist leanings, especially in international affairs, until War was declared in 1916, when a huge reaction took effect. Knock does a good job relating events and portraying Wilson as one whose ideas for truly ending warfare was convincing to world leaders but not his own country. The effort of trying to persuade his countrymen of the importance of a League probably broke his health and led to his death. Recommended.
Meticulous study on the League of Nations.......2002-01-01
When I was very young, I read somewhere that Wilson was the greatest swindler in human history. And Wilson has always been a mistery to me. Reading this book, I expected to learn the reason why Woodrow Wilson decided to lead America into World War I. But it was not a main theme of this book. And the explanation about it was not satisfactory to me. My misunderstanding about Wilson, however, is removed now thanks to this book.
Thomas J. Knox decidedly focused on the League issue. He meticulously studied the process of the formation of League of Nations. And his analysis of American political spectrum of that era - especially progressive internationalism & conservative internationalism - was excellent. It was very helpful in studying American history.
A Good Analysis of President Wilson's Views.......2001-09-21
To End All Wars attempts to show where President Wilson's ideas on the League of Nations came from and why he ultimatly failed. A fascinating protryal of early 20th century poltics, Knock successfully intergrates both the domestic policies of Wilson with his international policies. The links between the progressive, pacifist leagues and Wilson's views are clearly marked and appear credible. What is not examined is the moral conflict between Wilson's anti-war views and the fact he lead the country into World War I. Further research into this inconsitency could have led insight into why Wilson treated his former progrssive allies with such contempt as the war progressed. The ultimate result was his political inability to convince the American people to join the League of Nations after he alientated his greatest supporters.
Turning Your Head Around on Woodrow Wilson.......2000-05-31
Professor Knock turned my head around on the foreign policies of Woodrow Wilson. This book takes the reader back into the 1890s, when Wilson was a professor of politics and history, in its quest to understand the evolution of his foreign policy thru American entry into the First World War. Nothing is sacred in this author's hands either. He devises a large-scale drama encompassing a spectrum of players--Jane Addams, William Howard Taft, Elihu Root, Eugene Debs, and more--as he dissects how and why Wilson failed to gain Senate ratification for the Treaty of Versailles. If it is a familiar story, Professor Knock's retelling of it is both original and compelling. I think this is the single most important book currently available on Wilsonian foreign policy.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent -- with some shortcomings.......2003-09-12
August Heckscher's one-volume biography of Woodrow Wilson is a lucidly written and admirable account of our 28th president, but marred by troubling omissions and inconsistencies.
Heckscher persuasively argues that the first southerner elected to the presidency since Reconstruction wasn't really southern at all. In fact, with the exception of Andrew Jackson, no other American president had family roots so newly established in this country (his mother and all four grandparents were born in England). Although he was reared in the South -- born in Virginia, and spending his childhood as a Presbyterian preacher's son in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina -- his family was not a member of the Old South aristocracy, but rather missionaries of the church in what Heckscher implies was more or less a foreign land. He was, in short, no more a southerner in the White House than an American missionary returning from Africa is a Cameroonian.
Also, we learn little of Wilson's political consciousness as he progressed in his academic career at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, and finally Princeton. Why was he a Democrat? Because nearly all white men hailing from the South in post-bellum America were Democrats? Heckscher doesn't bother to explain. We hear nothing of Wilson's opinions of presidents Cleveland or McKinley, or other leading party statesmen of the day. Why did the Democratic Party's conservative wing consider Wilson to be "their candidate" in the 1910 New Jersey gubernatorial race? Because he was an inveterate foe of William Jennings Bryan, the Party's progressive standard-bearer? But he was also highly thought of at the time by Teddy Roosevelt, a "progressive's progressive."" Heckscher tries to shed a little more light on this question, but it is still far from clear how or why a liberal academic with Wilson's publications could have been pegged as a conservative Democrat.
Most surprisingly (and disappointingly), the implications of Wilson's devout Christianity and his now infamous racism are almost totally shunted aside. Heckscher notes that Wilson had something of an epiphany while a teenager and that henceforth his relationship to God was central to his character and subsequent behavior, but that relationship plays no major role throughout the rest of the narrative of his life. Based on other readings of Wilson's life, it seems to me that one can't fully understand Wilson without understanding his faith and how that faith shaped his worldview and his actions -- particularly in his fight for the League of Nations -- and Heckscher's work does almost nothing in that regard.
There is an ongoing debate about how much an historical figure should be held to modern standards of racial or religious tolerance and acceptance (Truman's anti-Semitism is a good example, and, of course, there are the slaveholding presidents of the 18th and early 19th centuries). Wilson has been one president excoriated for his racist views, which seem all the more grotesque because they came from one of the nation's most progressive and visionary leaders, and without doubt its most educated (Wilson dropped out of UVA Law School but passed the bar in Georgia, and received his Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins). Rather than taking this question squarely on and offering an explanation and assessment of Wilson's views on race, Heckscher just avoids it entirely. He says that Wilson personally favored promotion of civil rights for black Americans, but the passage of the New Freedom was the sine qua non of his administration's domestic agenda and for that to succeed he needed a united Democratic Party. The only way he could achieve unity was to abandon civil rights, which, Heckscher says, he did unhesitatingly, but with a heavy heart. There isn't a single reference to Wilson's many racist statements in this massive tome. If you'd read nothing more on Wilson, this biography would give you the impression that he was a moral crusader for black equality.
The Wilson that emerges from the pages of Heckscher's work is something of a pathetic figure, which is astounding because the author is so clearing sympathetic with his subject, as is often the case in presidential hagiographies. Wilson comes across as a politician who was not-quite-ready-for-prime-time. When confronted with political opposition -- whether as president of Princeton, governor of New Jersey, delegate to the 1919 Peace Conference, or as president trying to pass the League of Nations -- Wilson showed no art of political persuasion or ability to compromise. Rather, his visceral reaction was to go over the heads of his opponents making demagogic appeals to the people. His hope was always to crush his opponents under the strain of popular approval, but it almost never worked out that way. Moreover, he was quick to attack anyone not 100% with him as being in the enemy camp, which further eroded his ability to affect an outcome in his favor.
In the end, after a series of strokes left him an invalid, Wilson succeeded in alientating even his most ardent loyalists, such as Joseph Tumulty and Colonel House, with his erratic and vindictive behavior. Heckscher accuses Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, with deliberately fostering animosity in the cabinet and making sure that Wilson would not resign for reasons of health despite the fact it left the country virtually rudderless in the stormiest of international seas. Many figures in the Wilson administration take a few lumps in this biography, but none more than Galt, to whom the author attributes no redeeming qualities or positive contributions.
What is most frustrating about this book is that it is so good in so many ways that its few notable shortcomings seem almost tragic. Neverthess, the good outweighs the bad, and it is to be recommended in spite of its warts.
Effective. Worthwhile. Good........2000-03-17
This is a good biography of Wilson. While not great, it is effective and well considered - the author knows a great deal of Wilson's papers, having apparently worked on them for years. Worth both the time and the money. And it contains a wonderful bibliography for further Wilson reading. For what it's worth, I recommend it.
A biography that is not worth your time........1997-04-08
An poorly researched biography that, while long, still does notprovide a full picture of Woodrow Wilson. Even after 500 pages I stilldid not know much baout the TWW's inner workings; what made him tick. There was a paucity of documents used as examples, despite his being President for eight years. He is given to us as an automaton, moving from one job to the next, and we are never privy to his superior intellect. Go read McCollough's bio of Truman instead.
Book Description
This book situates Burundi in the current global debate on ethnicity by describing and analyzing the wholesale massacre of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority. The author refutes the government's version of these events that places blame on the former colonial government and the church. He offers documentation that identifies the source of these massacres as occurring across a socially constructed fault-line that pitted the Hutu majority's use of ethnicity as an instrument for the achievement of majority rule in parliament against the Tutsi minority's use of ethnocide to gain hegemony. By analyzing the roots of ethnicity conflict, the author derives institutional and other formulae through which conflict among the primary groups in Burundi--and elsewhere--may be mitigated. Published in cooperation with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
Average customer rating:
- A well documented discussion
- Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
- A Definitive Account of the Washington Consensus on the Energy-Security Nexus
- Sensible and comprehensive
- Energy is Security
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Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Book Description
For more than a century, energy and its procurement have been central to the U.S. position as a world power. How can U.S. relations with established producer nations ensure the stability of energy supplies? How can non-OPEC resources best be brought to the international marketplace? And what are the risks to international security of growing global reliance on imported oil?
In Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy, Jan H. Kalicki and David L. Goldwyn bring together the topmost foreign policy and energy experts and leaders to examine these issues, as well as how the U.S. can mitigate the risks and dangers of continued energy dependence through a new strategic approach to foreign policy that integrates both U.S. energy and national security interests. Contributors include Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Kevin A. Baumert, Michelle Billig, Loyola de Palacio, Jonathan Elkind, Michelle Michot Foss, Leon Fuerth, Lee H. Hamilton, Evan M. Harrje, John P. Holdren, Paul F. Hueper, Amy Myers Jaffe, J. Bennett Johnston, Donald A. Juckett, Viktor I. Kalyuzhny, Melanie A. Kenderdine, William F. Martin, Charles McPherson, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ernest J. Moniz, Edward L. Morse, Julia Nanay, Shirley Neff, Willy H. Olsen, Bill Richardson, John Ryan, James R. Schlesinger, Gordon Shearer, Adam E. Sieminski, Alvaro Silva-Calderón, Luis Téllez Kuenzler, J. Robinson (Robin) West, Daniel Yergin, and Keiichi Yokobori.
Customer Reviews:
A well documented discussion.......2007-10-14
This is a wide ranging and well thought out discussion on contemporary issues in US energy security, comnprehensively covering many aspects of hydrocarbon politics. The book puts into perspective that prices at the petrol pump are more than simply politicians in Washington who should be 'doing something' about oil prices, but rather that the problem is a whole raft of interconnected global political issues. This discussion clearly highlights the current heavy reliance that the US has on many, unstable third world nations. This fact in itself is quite worring.
One area where I felt that the book could have been a little more in-depth was around solutions to the energy security issue, and in particular the use and development of alternative energy supplies or other strategies for reducing the reliance upon hydrocarbons. There are short chapters on both alternative energy and on the environmental problems of oil, both of which likely to become much bigger over the next decade or so. As the book rightly points out, however, there is going to be no short term solution and much of the US foreign policy for the next decade or so is going to be driven by protecting its foreign oil supplies.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in current global issues in energy security.
Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy (Woodrow Wilson Center Press).......2007-02-21
required reading as background history of oil to understand the future we need to understand the past to the best of our abilities
A Definitive Account of the Washington Consensus on the Energy-Security Nexus.......2007-01-27
Patrick Clawson's statements ring true, Energy and Security provides a definitive account of the Washington consensus on the energy-security nexus. It argues that energy policy of the last half century has produced excessive dependence on unstable and repressive governments, has failed to redress the environmental consequences of energy consumption, and has failed to invest adequately in technology that would reduce strategic vulnerability and environmental degradation.
It sounds convincing--until one asks the question of cost. The last fifty years have also been a period of unprecedented global prosperity, and low-cost energy was no small part of the reason. In that time, energy consumption has exploded, as electricity has been brought to billions, and transporting goods and people across vast distances has become commonplace. Those who would change direction on energy policy should acknowledge that thirty years ago, in response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, the best and brightest made many of the same recommendations repeated here, and the result was a waste of tens of billions of dollars on inappropriate technologies and complicated regulatory schemes. It is disheartening to see such prominent experts so quick to skip over the errors of the past and so little interested in the dollars-and-cents implications of their recommendations.
That said, the twenty-two essays have much useful information and many important insights. The globe is covered in twelve essays grouped in four regions with a commentary section for each: Russia, the Caspian, and European gas; the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa; China, Japan, and southeast Asia; and North America, South America, and the North Atlantic (i.e., North Sea). A major theme is that energy resources are abundant--few serious experts have much patience for resource pessimism so often trotted out by certain engineers and environmentalists--but that there are serious questions about the framework of government policies for making use of those resources.
Another set of essays paints the global framework, such as the role of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the International Energy Agency, and commodity exchanges. The essays in the final section look at public policy issues such as climate protection, environmental sustainability, technology development, and strategic reserves. The authors do an excellent job of describing the issues as seen in Washington, including analysis of the debates about what should be government policies. That is a welcome contrast to the shrill tone and extreme positions staked out by many authors addressing these matters.
Sensible and comprehensive.......2005-11-14
It is the fate of any topic that as its importance rises in the public domain, the quality of the debate on it decreases almost proportionally. Energy security has not escaped this rule. As the intuitive grasp on energy security becomes more complicated, the prescriptions to solve it become simpler and sillier. The purpose of this volume is to navigate through the complicated subject of energy security with solemnity and seriousness.
In doing so, it begins, sensibly, from refuting the more obscene and far-fetched ideas out there on how to deal with America's energy security. It then outlines the various features of economy, technology, and geopolitics that make up America's energy security map and proceeds to explain how they can be integrated in a larger foreign and domestic policy framework.
What emerges from this volume is a double sense: the first is that a topic as complex as energy security can be reasonably broken down to its individual components (in fact, it is obvious in the text why it is necessary to do so). The second is that enhancing America's energy security involves serious tradeoffs in domestic and foreign policy-tradeoffs that politicians seem unwilling to accept as necessary much less adopt as policy.
To contrast the hoopla out there on energy security, this tome offers both a good start and a reasonable advancement on the field. Anyone who wants to think about energy security in a sensible, systematic and comprehensive sense has to become acquainted with this book.
Energy is Security.......2005-10-03
Bravo to the editors and writers of this very timely policy treatise discussing the very urgent need for the US to realign its foreign policy to secure our future. A must read.
Book Description
The fateful blunder that radically altered the course of the twentieth century—and led to some of the most murderous dictators in history
President Woodrow Wilson famously rallied the United States to enter World War I by saying the nation had a duty to make “the world safe for democracy.” But as historian Jim Powell demonstrates in this shocking reappraisal, Wilson actually made a horrible blunder by committing the United States to fight. Far from making the world safe for democracy, America’s entry into the war opened the door to murderous tyrants and Communist rulers. No other president has had a hand—however unintentional—in so much destruction. That’s why, Powell declares, “Wilson surely ranks as the worst president in American history.”
Wilson’s War reveals the horrifying consequences of our twenty-eighth president’s fateful decision to enter the fray in Europe. It led to millions of additional casualties in a war that had ground to a stalemate. And even more disturbing were the long-term consequences—consequences that played out well after Wilson’s death. Powell convincingly demonstrates that America’s armed forces enabled the Allies to win a decisive victory they would not otherwise have won—thus enabling them to impose the draconian surrender terms on Germany that paved the way for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
Powell also shows how Wilson’s naiveté and poor strategy allowed the Bolsheviks to seize power in Russia. Given a boost by Woodrow Wilson, Lenin embarked on a reign of terror that continued under Joseph Stalin. The result of Wilson’s blunder was seventy years of Soviet Communism, during which time the Communist government murdered some sixty million people.
Just as Powell’s FDR’s Folly exploded the myths about Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Wilson’s War destroys the conventional image of Woodrow Wilson as a great “progressive” who showed how the United States can do good by intervening in the affairs of other nations. Jim Powell delivers a stunning reminder that we should focus less on a president’s high-minded ideals and good intentions than on the consequences of his actions.
A selection of the Conservative Book Club and American Compass
Customer Reviews:
Heavy-Handed Editorializing?.......2007-06-18
Jeez, could the editorial review at least pretend to suppress their bias towards pro-British interpretation of the history?
Fascinating Read, Ultimately Unsatisfying.......2007-05-09
This book sets out the revise the record on Woodrow Wilson and his policies. Wilson brought America into WWI, resulting in a victory for the British/French coalition over that of Germany/Austria. This victory, after years of horrible bloodshed, became a punishing peace for the German people, no more responsible for the war than anyone else involved in it. Powell very accurately and ably describes how this lead to Hitler, Stalin, WWII, and ultimately our troubles in Iraq. Unfortunately, more of the book is spent addressing the results of Wilson's blundering rather than the cause. That, in my opinion, really dragged the book down. It was a good overview of the first half of the 20th century as it descended into chaos, but I didn't get a good view of, as the title of the book states, Wilson's War. Based on the title, I would have expected something more along the lines of Flemings "Illusion of Victory" followed by the second half of this book. Lastly, as other reviewers have pointed out, the book does seem to be written expressly to lead to the largely isolationist conclusion of the author. There's nothing wrong with that in general, but it doesn't feel quite correct in a book that purports to be history and not polemic.
Weak historical scholarship.......2007-01-05
Having read many of the books cited by the author, I began to question the authors credentials and scholarship. What primary sources were used? It's more of a barroom argument put down in writing than a serious historical thesis. Emotionally biased phrases such as, "Wilson was an arrogant and bitter man" without delving into the causes for this arrogance and bitterness leave me flat. The intended audience for this book appears to be high school students, as it provides a general survey of modern, Western history without much detail. While I actually agree with much of the author's main points, there are much better books on the subject. They are all listed in Powell's bibliography.
Don't Follow Leaders.......2006-11-27
This book is not the ultimate work of historical scholarship about World War I, but it is an informative and well thought out look at one of the worst presidents in American history and another nail in the coffin of the cult of leadership (see also titles like "Lincoln Unmasked" and "Bully Boy", "The New Dealers War" and "The Bush Betrayal"). This is a welcome contribution to the new wave of popular historical interpretations that are attempting to give balance to a field long dominated by tax-funded, left wing academics who miss no chance to support, justify and glory in expansions of State power without regard to loss of life or econimic cost.
And don't be mislead when post-modernist, welfare statists, like the folks at Publisher's Weekly use the word "isolationist" to describe anything you're thinking of reading. It's mearly a naked attempt to smear any philosophy that would impose limits on the size and scope of government. Non-interventionism is not isolationism!
An Effective Essay, Ineffective History.......2006-02-13
Jim Powell's book would have made an excellent op-ed piece in the Sunday New York Times or essay in The Weekly Standard, but it is not a strong work of sustained historical research and analysis. His central argument that American entry into World War I (not merely the Treaty of Versailles) paved the way for the rise of Hitler, the triumph of Lenin and Stalin, and the coming of World War II is compelling. Many historians have written about the tragic consequences of the failed peace and about Wilson's naïve belief that he could control the machinations and jealousies of the European powers, but Powell makes the more provocative case that the world would have been better off had the U.S. allowed World War I to end in a stalemate.
What is disappointing about this book (and about the lavish praise it has received in other reviews) is the shallowness of its research and its disdain for historical context. Primary sources are almost entirely absent from the endnotes. Incredibly, this book devoted to an indictment of Wilson for "his" war does not even mention Theodore Roosevelt, Leonard Wood, or any of the apostles of preparedness to whom Wilson was reacting politically. Powell did not consult the important books of N. Gordon Levin, Jr., or Lawrence Gelfand that lay out in great detail the ideological origins and objectives of Wilson's Fourteen Points. Readers of this book unfortunately will come away with insufficient understanding of how and why Woodrow Wilson formulated the foreign policy that Powell finds so historically destructive.
Readers may also come away thinking that Jim Powell has blown the cover off of the Wilson mythology - a mythology constructed and nurtured by historians Thomas A. Bailey and Arthur Link. Like other recent works of "revisionism" (such as Thomas DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln), Powell creates a straw-man "conventional view" of his subject and fails to give adequate credit to previous generations of revisionist historians. The job of challenging Wilson's historical image as progressive idealist was already accomplished decades ago, ironically, by historians from the opposite ideological pole. The "New Left" historians of the 1960s indicted Wilson's interventionism because they believed it planted the seeds of America's involvement in Vietnam, Central America, and other conflicts of the Cold War era.
Powell seems more interested in demonstrating the efficacy of his four principles that should guide the making of U.S. foreign policy and the managing of political economy than he is in writing sound history. The libertarian ideology of the Cato Institute (where he is a senior fellow) is apparent on virtually every page. The information he imparts sometimes seems oddly chosen as historical evidence, but makes sense as building blocks for the ideological edifice he constructs. This kind of writing makes for an effective essay, but does little to enlighten us about the making of U.S. foreign policy.
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