The Great American Mission (ebook)

Argumento de The Great American Mission (ebook)

"An extraordinarily important book. Ekbladh puts concepts of development and modernization at the heart of America's global expansion in the twentieth century and thereby helps us understand the forces that move U.S. foreign policy, both yesterday and today."--O. A. Westad, author of The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times

"A comprehensive history of developmentalism as it became increasingly central to U.S. foreign affairs in the twentieth century. The legacy is still with us, and anyone interested in finding out what may have happened to the 'American century' will find the book an excellent guide and a rich source of information and insights."--Akira Iriye, Harvard University

"Cogent and compelling. The Great American Mission illuminates for the first time how the central characteristics of America's modernization project in the Cold War came together in the prewar period. Carefully tracing ideas, institutions, and individuals from the Depression to the heyday of development, Ekbladh offers new insights into the distinctive components of American modernization efforts abroad."--David C. Engerman, Brandeis University

"[E]rudite and ambitious. . . . [A]n illuminating and compelling read."--David Milne, Journal of American Studies

"[A]s a historical narrative it constitutes a very valuable and thorough contribution to understanding how modernization ideas furnished the foundations of American post-war development policy, whilst also supplying a series of interesting portraits of almost-forgotten figures who were intimately associated with this enterprise. . . . [T]he book is a substantial contribution both to the literatures on the Cold War as well as the history of Western development policy, making it a worthwhile book for the specialist and the interested general reader alike."--Willem Oosterveld, Political Science Journal

"In this important book, Ekbladh provides one of the most compelling portraits yet of the liberal ideas that guide U.S. foreign policy. . . . Even though the liberal vision of modernization lost appeal amid the trauma of the Vietnam War, as Ekbladh's fascinating account makes clear, it remains deeply embedded in the American imagination."--John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"David Ekbladh's excellent new book does valuable work in illustrating much of this complexity, and fleshing out its rich historical detail. He not only provides an impressive account of the evolution of American thinking about 'development' and 'modernisation', but also places this firmly in the context of both social and intellectual trends at work within the United States and the external demands being made of its foreign policy."--Adam Quinn, Journal of Transatlantic Studies

"[T]his is a book with a broad mandate. . . . It is a significant contribution to have such a compelling account of the overall strategic impetus of American development during, before, and after the Cold War."--Travis Nelson, Political Science Quarterly

"Ekbladh offers a sweeping, provocative appraisal of the U.S. attempt to employ development as an ideological weapon."--Choice

"The Great American Mission deserves to take its place among the literature on the evolution of US foreign relations in the twentieth century."--Nicolas Bouchet, International Affairs

Winner of the 2011 Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Winner of the 2010 Best First Book Award, Phi Alpha Theta0List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xv
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: The Rise of an American Style of Development, 1914-1937 14
CHAPTER 2: The Only Road for Mankind: "Modernisation" to Meet the Challenge of Totalitarianism, 1933-1944 40
CHAPTER 3: A Gospel of Liberalism: Point Four and Modernization as National Policy, 1943-1952 77
CHAPTER 4: "The Proving Ground": Modernization and U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia, 1945-1960 114
CHAPTER 5: "The Great American Mission": Modernization and the United States in the World, 1952-1960 153
CHAPTER 6: A TVA on the Mekong: Modernization at War in Southeast Asia, 1960-1973 190
CHAPTER 7: "Everything Is Going Wrong": The Crisis of Development and the End of the Postwar Consensus 226
CHAPTER 8: New Developments: From the Cold War to the "War on Terror" 257
Notes 275
Bibliography 337
Index 373