Rise and Decline of the American Century

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20-50
A01=III
A01=William O. Walker
A01=William O. Walker III
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Age Group_Uncategorized
American history
Author_III
Author_William O. Walker
Author_William O. Walker III
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBTW
Category=JPS
Cold War
containment
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
détente
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
hegemony
III
International economic history after 1945
International history
Language_English
multilateralism
PA=Available
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
softlaunch
U.S. foreign relations

Product details

  • ISBN 9781501726132
  • Weight: 907g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 15 Oct 2018
  • Publisher: Cornell University Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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In 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 movement, challenged U.S. leadership and denigrated the market democracy at the heart of the ideal of the American Century.

Walker analyzes the international crises and monetary troubles that further curtailed the reach of the American Century in the early 1960s and brought it to a halt by the end of that decade. By 1968, it seemed that all the United States had to offer to allies and non-hostile nations was convenient military might, nuclear deterrence, and the uncertainty of détente. Once the dust had fallen on Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency and Richard M. Nixon had taken office, what remained was, The Rise and Decline of the American Century shows, an adulterated, strategically-based version of Luce's American Century.

William O. Walker III was Professor of History at the University of Toronto. He is retired and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has published extensively on U.S.-Latin American relations, and is the author of National Security and Core Values in American History.