Global America

Description

Global America tells the story of how Americans were swept up in the swift-moving currents of twentieth-century world history. Drawing on the latest research on the history of the United States in the world, it demonstrates how global interactions and developments transformed both America and the world.

Global America weaves together topics such as social reform, the world wars, and the rise of conservatism in a way that helps readers gain a fresh understanding of America's place in the world. It pays particular attention to themes of race, class, and gender and how each has shaped--and been shaped by--U.S. engagement with the world. In connecting U.S. and world history, Global America argues that the more America sought to change the world, the more the world changed America.

Global America offers a synthesis accessible to undergraduates. The chapters are organized chronologically, beginning with the 1890s and ending in 2013. Starting with U.S. expansion in the late nineteenth century, the book situates American developments within the context of major political and economic events, explores key developments in culture and society, and ends with the rise and partial decline of American power in recent years.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
List of Graphs
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors

PART 1: INDUSTRY AND EMPIRE, 1893-1945

Chapter 1: The United States in the World Economy at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century
1893: World's Columbian Exposition
Progress and Poverty in the World Economy
The Rise of Capitalism
The First Industrial Revolution
Growth and Inequality
World Economy in Three Tiers
Class and Race in the Agrarian South
Uneven Development in the Middle Tier
Brittain: Capitalist Headquarters
The Place of the United States
Corporate Capitalism
Finance Capitalism
Laissez Faire
From Country to City
Mass Migrations
Working-Class Gains and Losses
Labor Unrest
Chicago: Crossroads of Capital and Labor
Responses to Class Conflict
Farm Distress in North America
Populist Revolt
Varieties of Rural Protest
Progress at the World's Fair
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 2: The New Imperialism
Colonial Migrations
The New Imperialism
The New Imperialism and the World Economy
The Tribute of the Market
Imperial Cola
Conflict in the Caribbean
The War of 1898
Formal and Informal Empire
War in the Philippines
The Philippine Insurrection
Debate over Empire: The United States
Debate over Empire: Europe
Empire and Resistance in East Asia
The Open Door in China
The Boxer Rebellion
The Rise of Japan
Japan versus the West
US Sphere of Influence in Latin America
Relations with El Norte
Building the Panama Canal
Business and Empire
Dollar Diplomacy
The Reach of the Monroe Doctrine
Domestic Consequences of Empire
Uncle Sam and Jim Crow
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 3: Reforming Modern Society
Transatlantic Reform: Alice Paul and the Women's Suffrage Movement
Reforming Modern Society
Economic Foundations for Transatlantic Reform
Intellectual Foundations for Reform: Theorizing Modernity and its Discontents
Social Foundations for Reform: Changes in Property and Family
Transatlantic Reform
Reform or Revolution
Revolt Against Patriarchy
New Sexual Morality
Race and Reform
Capitalism and the "Social Question"
Religion and Reform
Social Protection in Comparative Perspective
Comparative Political Economy
Revolution and Reform in Russia, Germany, and Britain
The Road to Reform in the United States
A Special Path?
Similarities between the United States and other Western Nations
The United States in Western Society
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 4: Global Shifts and the First World War, 1914-1918
The American Red Cross in Europe
America and the Great War
Pre-war Internationalism
Underlying Causes of the War: Nationalist Ethnic Tensions and Imperial Rivalries
Outbreak of War in Europe
Early Years of War in Europe
US Neutrality
"Total War" and "People's War"
War for Economies
War for Empire
Increasing US Involvement
The Preparedness Movement
The Testing of Neutrality
The United States in Latin America
US Interventions in Latin America During World War I
Open Door Policy and US Involvement in the World War
On the Home Front
World War I and the Social Contract
US Contribution to Allied Victory
American Ascendance
Antiwar Sentiment
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 5: Revolution and Reaction, 1917-1924
1917: John Reed and Louise Bryant in Russia
American Responses to Revolution
Revolutions in the Agricultural Belt
The United States and Revolutionary Mexico
War and Revolution in Europe
People's Peace and Bolshevik Revolution
Wilson v. Lenin
Separate Peace and Allied Intervention
1919: Millennial Moment
Love and Revolution
Search for Order
Versailles Peace Conference
Postwar Disorders
Disorder in the United States
Clashes along the Color Line
Red Scare
Sacco Vanzetti
The Resurgence of Patriarchy
Retreat from Reform
Retreat from Internationalism
A World Safe for Empire
Washington Naval Conference
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 6: Democracy Faces the Great Depression, 1925-1936
1933: Depression Journey
Democracy Faces the Great Depression
Peaceful Interlude, 1925-29
The American Role in Economic Stabilization
New Woman at Bay
Romance of Consumption
American Culture Overseas
American Model v. Soviet Model
From Boom to Bust
Similar Responses
Gender and Sexuality
Different Responses: Fascist, Communist, Liberal
Depression as a War Emergency
Economic Planning
A New Deal to Save Democracy
Race and Racism
International Relations
Militarism in Japan and Germany
The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39
American Isolation
Good Neighbors? The United States and Latin America
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 7: Global War, 1937-1945
Escape from Nazi-occupied Europe
Global Conflict and Total War
War in Asia
War in Europe
Diplomatic Surprises
Blitzkrieg
U.S. Responses before Pearl Harbor
Marketing the War
Operation Barbarossa
Crimes Against Humanity
Pearl Harbor
The U.S. and the Grand Alliance
Total War
Class Relations and the Social Contract
Labor and Women Workers
Race Changes
Allied Victory: The Russian Contribution
Allied Victory: D-Day and the American Contribution
Endgame
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Sorrow of War
Conclusion
Further Reading

PART II: BURDENS OF THE COLOSSUS, 1945-2012

Chapter 8: America's Cold War Ascendancy, 1945-1954
George Marshall in Moscow: 1947
American Ascendancy in the Cold War
The World in 1945
Internationalism Reborn
Economic Reconstruction, 1944-47
The Challenge of Cooperation at Home
Social Roots of the Imperial Rivalry Between the Superpowers
United States: An Open System
Soviet Union: A Closed System
Cold War Conflict, 1947-54
Consolidating Borders in Europe
Mutual Containment
The Cold War Goes Global
Establishing Borders in Asia
Korean War
Cold War Culture
Colonial Independence
Civil Rights Revival
The Golden Age
Role of the State
The "Americanization" of Western Europe
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 9: American Reform and the Third World, 1955-65
Journey to Freedom: 1957
Reform, the Third World, and the Cold War
The Third World
Sino-Soviet Split
The Lower Tier in the World Economy
Africa in the Cold War
Civil Rights Movement
Consumer Culture
The Empire of Consumption
The Balance of Power, c. 1960
Berlin Crisis
Cuban Revolution
Cuban Missile Crisis
The United States in the Third World
Peaceful Revolution for Civil Rights
African Americans and the Colonial Analogy
Second Reconstruction
Johnson's Great Society
Cold War Liberalism
Liberal Interventionism
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 10: Crisis of Authority, 1965-72
The Tet Offensive: 1968
Crisis of Authority, 1965-1972
Disorder in the Cold War
Global Conflict in Vietnam
Proxy War on the Frontier of Empire
America's War for Empire
Revolutionary Nationalism
Escalation in Vietnam
America's Global Reach
The Black Power Revolt
The Tet Offensive
1968
Conservative Counter-Revolt
America at Impasse
Conservative Dilemma in Vietnam
Cultural Revolutions in the East
Cultural Revolutions in the West
Counter-Culture
Collapse of the New Left
Changing Patterns of Social Reproduction
Feminism and Its Enemies
Conclusion: Mixed Legacy
Further Reading

Chapter 11: Imperial Impasse
1972: Nixon Meets Mao
America at Impasse
Adjusting to Economic Limits
Toward a Multipolar World
China Beckons
The United States Responds
Soviet-American Détente
Shocks from the Middle East
Nixon's Fall
Defeat in Vietnam
Downshift in the World Economy
Roots of Globalization
Challenges from the Third World
Crisis in Iran
Conclusian
Further Reading

Chapter 12: Converging Global Trends, 1980-1991
The World Car, 1980
Global Convergence
Economic Globalization
The Global Factory
Social Dislocations
Rise of Conservatism
The Politics of Religion
Cultural Conservatives and Family Values
Science and Religion
Free Market Conservatives
Breakthrough to Power
Conservatives in Action
Attack on the Welfare State
Culture Wars
Restoring National Greatness
Cold War II
Cold War in the Third World
The Iran-Contra Scandal
Liberal Response to Conservative Ascendancy
Peace Movement and Renewal of Détente
End of the Cold War
Assessing the Cold War
End of Soviet Empire
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 13: The United States as Global Leader, 1990-1999
Michael Jackson in Japan
The US Role in Globalization
Economic Globalization
Finance Capitalism
Factories Move East
The United States in the Global Order
Americanizing the World Economy
World Politics after the Cold War
Regional Settlements
Clinton and Blair
United States as Global Sheriff
North/South Divide
Conditions in the Global South
Backlash Against the Global North
Blowback
Globalization of America: The Open Door in Reverse
US Decline?
Globalization on Trial
Culture Clash
Debt Crisis
Unsustainable Development
Mass Protests: Seattle, 1999
Conclusion
Further Reading

Chapter 14: Global Divergence: The Post-9/11 World
America on the Tigris
Global Divergence
Power Surge
Republican Power
September 11, 2001
Border Closings
Opening up the Middle East
Call to War
Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
The Lonely Superpower
Closing Cultural Borders
Closings in the Open Society
Power Failures
Electoral Reversals, 2006-2008
Problems of the 21st Century
US in the World Economy
Walmart, The Global Department Store
The Search for Global Justice
End of Empire?
Environmental Consequences of Economic Growth
Global Warming

Conclusion
Further Reading
Glossary
Credits