January 19, 2003
BOOKNOTES:
First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power by Warren Zimmermann (C-SPAN, January 19, 2003, 8 & 11pm)Americans like to think they have no imperial past. In fact, the United States became an imperial nation within five short years a century ago (1898-1903), exploding onto the international scene with the conquest of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and (indirectly) Panama. How did the nation become a player in world politics so suddenly-and what inspired the move toward imperialism in the first place?Posted by Stephen Judd at January 19, 2003 7:18 AMThe renowned diplomat and writer Warren Zimmermann seeks answers in the lives and relationships of five remarkable figures: the hyper-energetic Theodore Roosevelt, the ascetic naval strategist Alfred T. Mahan, the bigoted and wily Henry Cabot Lodge, the self-doubting moderate Secretary of State John Hay, and the hard-edged corporate lawyer turned colonial administrator Elihu Root. Faced with difficult choices, these extraordinary men, all close friends, instituted new political and diplomatic policies with intermittent audacity, arrogance, generosity, paternalism, and vision.
Have already read the book. It's a great read. Highly recommended.
Posted by: Dave at January 19, 2003 9:49 AMI'm not really sure how significant these conquests were given that the US didn't become a major player in world poitics until WW2 and American citizens as a whole were/are generally uninterested in imperialism.
Anyway I'm looking forward to the transcripts on Boyd and the book by Stephen Schwartz.
Yeah, the United States rushed for empire.
In 1893, a group of Americans or descendants
of Americans overthrew the Hawaiian
monarchy and began pressuring the U.S.
for annexation.
The U.S. didn't bother getting around to it
until 1898.
The agitation for colonies goes way back but
had few takers. In the 1850s, a group of
Southern freebooters decided to take Cuba.
The Spaniards hanged them, including the son
of a U.S. senator.
In the '70s and '80s, men like Shufeldt (bet
you never heard of him) propagandized
endlessly for colonial power.
The events of 1898-99 were an anomaly in
international relations, and the U.S. began
to divest itself of territories immediately:
Cuba via the Platt Amendment in 1902. The
Philippines was soon partly self-governing
and was scheduled for independence in 1946.
There was tremendous opposition to keeping
Hawaii.
Behind most of this was a distaste for
incorporating a lot of brown people into the
Republic.
Harry & Ali: The dissonance between US republicanism and proto imperialism was the genesis for the Isolationist movement between the WW's. In a sense, it is also the basis for the peace movement today, although I don't think that the neo Chompskyites would like to lie with Charles Lindbergh.
Posted by: Tom Roberts at January 19, 2003 2:05 PMIsolationism goes waaay back.
The original expansionists were the slaveocrats.
But isolationism goes back even further, to
the trading interests in New England.
Isolationism is the natural American posture, because we tend to believe we'll be contaminated by contact with the impure. The only times we're interventionist are when, as now, enough of us get whipped up into wanting to retaliate for some provocation or another.
Posted by: oj at January 19, 2003 10:11 PM