Description
America has harbored imperial ambitions since its founding. Its focus shifted in the twentieth century, from acquiring territory to penetrating foreign countries and influencing their governments to support US strategic and economic interests. That shift is the result of a decisive embrace of interventionism, aimed at extending US power throughout the world. Withdrawal from overextended military commitments could strengthen America. Tied to American Imperialism is the concept of American Exceptionalism, a belief in the unique character of America that not only made it distinct but better than any heretofore identity. Not only was it "exceptional" but prime for exportation.
Weekly Topics
I The territorial Empire
1. Introduction and Northwest Territories
2.Continental expansion
3. Mexico and Central America
4. Africa and Pacific
5. The Caribbean
II The semiglobal empire
6. Institutions
7. Nonstate actors
8. The empire in action
9. The unipolar moment
III The Empire in retreat
10. Anti-imperialism in the US
11. The US economy
12. The decline of leadership
13. Hegemony under threat
14. Epilogue and Conclusions
Bibliography
Text: Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Empire in Retreat, Yale University Press, 459 pp.
Additional Reading: David Hendrickson, Republic in Peril, Oxford U. Press, 287 pp.
Deborah Madsen, American Exceptionalism,Univ. of Mississippi Press, 186 pgs.
Immerwahr, Daniel. How to Hide an Empire. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2019.
