Nation Builder

Nation Builder
Author: Charles N. Edel
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2014-10-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674368088

America’s rise from revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable. But Charles N. Edel’s provocative biography of John Q. Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy whose ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil War–era nation of Lincoln.

In Search of Monsters to Destroy

In Search of Monsters to Destroy
Author: Christopher J. Coyne
Publisher: Independent Institute
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2022-12-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1598133497

"With In Search of Monsters to Destroy, Christopher Coyne offers readers a crisp, concise, and devastating indictment of American imperialism. His provocative proposal for a nonviolent 'polycentric' approach to national security comes as a welcome bonus." —Andrew J. Bacevich, President and Chairman of the Board, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History, Boston University Imperialism and militarism build empires, not liberalism. So says Christopher Coyne, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Economics at George Mason University, in this eye-opening, must-read book on America's recent foreign policy failures. After 9/11, the United States tried to establish liberal political regimes in the Middle East and in the mountains of Afghanistan—but the effort, according to Coyne, was doomed to fail. And his logic is simple. Illiberal means, such as: industrial-scale violence the destruction of international norms and partnerships with brutal, oppressive regimes can lead only to illiberal ends. What else are the hundreds of thousands of dead and mutilated civilians the US left behind in the Middle East and Central Asia? What else are the destroyed ancient cultures and nearly obliterated nation-states? Coyne also points out that the illiberal perpetrators can end up nearly bankrupt and humiliated in the process—and profoundly less secure. Sound familiar? Coyne insists that, if we do not absorb these truths, the rest of the 21st-century will be a repeat of its bloodstained, unstable beginning. But Coyne is no isolationist. He insists there are workable, proven alternatives to imperialism, militarism, and empire—ones that preserve freedom, promote security, and foster mutually enriching friendship among the nations of the earth. These alternatives stand in stark and admirable opposition to our current militaristic culture, proving that nonviolent approaches to domestic and international conflicts not only minimize violence, but also promote cultures of peace throughout the world. Read In Search of Monsters to Destroy, and you'll never look at the nation state or international relations the same again.

Monsters to Destroy

Monsters to Destroy
Author: Navin A. Bapat
Publisher:
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190061456

Terrorism kills far fewer Americans annually than automobile accidents, firearms, or even lightning strikes. Given this minimal risk, why does the U.S. continue expending lives and treasure to fight the global war on terror? In Monsters to Destroy, Navin A. Bapat argues that the war on terror provides the U.S. a cover for its efforts to expand and preserve American control over global energy markets. To gain dominance over these markets, the U.S. offered protection to states critical in the extraction, sale, and transportation of energy from their "terrorist" internal and external enemies. However, since the U.S. was willing to protect these states in perpetuity, the leaders of these regimes had no incentive to disarm their terrorists. This inaction allowed terrorists to transition into more powerful and virulent insurgencies, leading the protected states to chart their own courses and ultimately break with U.S. foreign policy objectives. Bapat provides a sweeping look at how the loss of influence over these states has accelerated the decline of U.S. economic and military power, locking it into a permanent war for its own economic security.

The Juggler

The Juggler
Author: Warren F. Kimball
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1994-08-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780691037301

Here Warren Kimball explores Roosevelt's vision of the postwar world by laying out the nature and development of FDR's "war aims"--his long-range political goals. As the face of eastern Europe and the world changes before our eyes, Roosevelt's goals, dismissed during the Cold War as impractical, seem less unrealistic today.

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Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 694
Release: 2003
Genre: Military art and science
ISBN:

The Contours of American History

The Contours of American History
Author: William Appleman Williams
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844677745

William Appleman Williams was one of America’s greatest critics of US imperialism. The Contours of American History, first published in 1961, reached back to seventeenth-century British history to argue that the relationship between liberalism and empire was in effect a grand compromise, with expansion abroad containing class and race tensions at home. Williams was not the first historian to identify the United States as an imperial power, yet he was unique in linking domestic disquiet to the long history of American expansion, which he traced back to England’s Glorious Revolution. Reaching deep into thirteenth century British history to identify the motor contradictions of what eventually would become known as liberalism, Williams presents a wholly original interpretation of US history; one where the story of the United States is the story of capitalism. Coming as it did before the political explosions of the 1960s, Williams’s message was a deeply heretical one, and yet the Modern Library ultimately chose Contours as one of the best 100 nonfiction books of the 20th Century. This fiftieth anniversary edition will introduce this magisterial work to a new readership, with a new introduction by Greg Grandin, one of today’s leading historians of US foreign policy.

The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars

The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars
Author: Richard M. Ebeling and Jacob G. Hornberger
Publisher: The Future of Freedom Foundation
Total Pages: 412
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre:
ISBN: 1890687073

Americans are now faced with competing visions of where we want our nation to go. On the one hand, we have the vision of America's Founders: individual liberty, private property, and limited government, in which there is no welfare, Social Security, income taxation, Medicare, Medicaid, regulations, subsidies, and the like. Equally important, no foreign wars. On the other hand, we have the vision of the 20th- and 21st-century public officials: ever-increasing taxation, regulations, and political plunder. And, of course, body bags and caskets as part of their attempt to remake the world into one gigantic welfare state. The stakes are too high for any American to ignore. For with foreign wars, not only do we have taxation and regulation, we also have the specter of funerals and wheelchairs for husbands, fathers, sons, wives, mothers, and daughters. It is time for the American people to recognize that our ancestors were right and that public officials were wrong. It is time to recapture the principles of our Founders. It is time to lead the world out of the welfare-state darkness into which it has plunged during most of our lifetime. The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars strips away the truth-obscuring nostalgia for America’s foreign adventures and shows the perverse and bloody consequences of these conflicts.

A William Appleman Williams Reader

A William Appleman Williams Reader
Author: Henry W. Berger
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1992-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1461703565

William Appleman Williams, who died in 1990, was arguably the most influential and controversial historian of his generation. His revisionist writings, especially in American diplomatic history, forced historians and others to abandon old clichés and confront disturbing questions about America's behavior in the world. Williams defined America's social, moral, constitutional, and economic development in uncompromising, iconoclastic, and original terms. He saw history as "a way of learning;" and applied the principle brilliantly in books and essays which have altered our vision of the American past and present. In this rich collection, Henry Berger has drawn from Williams's most important writings—including "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy," "The Contours of American History," and "The Roots of the Modern American Empire" to present his key arguments. There are twenty-one selections in all, from books, essays, and articles, including two never before published. Mr. Berger has added notes to the selections and an enlightening introduction which explores Williams's career and ideas. This is an exceptionally valuable book.