LaFeber, a diplomatic historian and author of the acclaimed Inevitable Revolutions ( LJ 12/1/83), offers a well-written, comprehensive overview of U.S. foreign policy in the context of American social history. Like any work intended as a text and covering such a broad period, this is short on detail but does consistently develop themes useful in understanding the complex history of American foreign relations. In particular, LaFeber emphasizes the role of American eagerness for land and expanded markets betwen 1750 and the 1940s, the relative decline of U.S. power beginning in the 1950s, and a predilection toward isolationism that helped maintain freedom of action.

List of Maps
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
The Roots of American Foreign Policy (1492--1789)
The Beginnings: Gold, God, and Paradise
The City on a Hill---and on the Water
The First Americans
The American "Multiplication Table'' and the European Power Struggle
Benjamin Franklin and the Problems of a Rising People
The Road to Revolution (1763--1775)
The Foreign Policy of Independence (1776)
The French Trap
Bittersweet Results of Peace
To the Constitution: "What Will Render Us Respectable Abroad?''
The "Grand Machine'' of the Constitution
Great Losers: The Antifederalists
Notes
For Further Reading
A Second Struggle for Independence and Union (1789--1815)
Liberty and Empires
The Framework: The United States (1789--1814)
Chosen People, the British Empire, and the French Revolution
A Turn: From Jay to X Y Z
Jefferson and Louisiana
The Second War for Independence and Union
From Near-Catastrophe to Near-Victory
Notes
For Further Reading
The First, the Last: John Quincy Adams and
the Monroe Doctrine (1815--1828)
Windmills, Clipper Ships, and Good Feelings
Adams
Setting the Stage
The Transcontinental Treaty
Opening "A Great Tragic Volume''---and
July 4,
The Monroe Doctrine
Great Losers: Adams the President
Notes
For Further Reading
The Amphibious Expansion of a Sixty-Five-Hundred-Thousand-Horsepower Steam
Engine (1828--1850)
The Context: Manifest Destiny and Railroads
in Russia
Removing Native Americans
The Road to China
Texas, Maria Child, and James K. Polk
Webster, Polk, and Looking John Bull in the Eye
The "Fire-Brand in the Body'': The Mexican War and Slavery
Two Near-Misses and a Near-Settlement
Manifest Destiny in Central America
The Legacies of Manifest Destiny and James K. Polk
Notes
For Further Reading
The Climax of Early U.S. Foreign Policy: The
Civil War (1850--1865)
Foreign Policy as a Cause of the Civil War
Young America: South, North, and at Home
Whigs and Asia
Seward: Prophet of U.S.-Russian Relations
Central America and Cuba
Lincoln and the Foreign-Policy Dreams of

The Diplomacy of the Civil War
Notes
For Further Reading
Laying the Foundations for "Superpowerdom'' (1865--1896)
Legacies of the Civil War
The Context of the Era: Triumph and Tragedy
A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: The Alaska Purchase and a Backlash
A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: Winning the West
A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: Africa
and Latin America
A Chronology of Postwar Expansion: The Pacific and Asia
The 1865-to-1896 Era: A Conclusion
Notes
For Further Reading
Turning Point: The McKinley Years (1896--1900)
The Significance of the Late 1890s
McKinley and McKinleyism
Two Crises, One War
"A Splendid Little War...''
...For Control of Cuba and Puerto Rico
...And the Conquest of the Filipinos
McKinley's Triumphs in China
...And a Final Triumph at Home
Notes
For Further Reading
The Search for Opportunity: Rough Riders and
Dollar Diplomats (1901--1913)
Theodore Roosevelt and Twentieth-Century U.S. Foreign Policy
The American Search for Opportunity: A New Presidency for a New Foreign Policy
East, North, and South to an Isthmian Canal
A Great Departure: The Roosevelt Corollary
The Fateful Triangle: The United States,
China, and Japan,
Taft, Knox, and Dollar Diplomacy
Dollar Diplomacy in Asia
Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America and Canada
The Irony of 1900--1913
Notes
For Further Reading
Wilsonians, Revolutions, and War (1913--1917)
The World of Woodrow Wilson
Wilson and Revolution: China
Wilson and Revolutions: Mexico (or, Painting the Fence Post White)
Wilson and Revolutions: Central America and
the Caribbean
The United States and World War I: Legality
versus Neutrality (1914--1916)
The Decisions for War (1916--1917)
Notes
For Further Reading
Victors without Peace (1917--1920)
Wilson's Approach to War and Peace
Over There: The Western Front
Over There: In Soviet Russia
Preparing for Paris
The "Black Cloud'' over Paris
At Paris: The Price of the Covenant
At Paris: A "Sanitary Cordon'' Instead of a "Sanitary Europe''
In Washington: The Defeat of the Covenant
Notes
For Further Reading
The Rise and Fall of the American Structure for World Order (1920--1933)
Harding, Hughes, and Hoover
New Rules for an Old Game: The Washington Treaty System (1921--1922)
"Capital...and State Craft...Go Hand in Hand'': The Republicans' System
The Rules for the New Republican System
A Case Study: Europe and the New Rules of the Game
The Outcast---Soviet Russia---and the Rules of the Game
"God. J. P. Morgan and the Republican
Party'' Are Not Enough: The Collapse of the System (1929)
Collapse of the Washington Treaty Structure: Asia and War
Getting "Blue'' over Latin America
Those "Bolshevists'' in Mexico and Nicaragua
Conclusion
Notes
For Further Reading
FDR and the Entry into World War II (1933--1941)
The Second Roosevelt
London, Failure, and Hull
Improving the Neighborhood
The Immediate Neighborhood: Cuba and Mexico
Germans, Japanese, and a One-Armed Nutcracker
"Isolationists'' versus "Internationalists''
Americans and the Holocaust
The Dilemma of "Quarantining'' Japan (1937--1939)
Conjuring up the Ghost of Munich (1937--1939)
America's Phony War of 1939--1941
The Real War (1941)
Sergeant York and the Announcement of the
American Century
Pearl Harbor and a "Feeling...of Relief''
The Lessons of the 1930s
Notes
For Further Reading
World War II: The Rise and Fall of the Grand Alliance (1941--1945)
The Washington Conference: Laying
Foundations in the Gloom (1941--1942)
At Washington and Casablanca: Previewing
the Cold War (1942--1943)
Tehran: The Moments of Truth (1943)
To Yalta: By Way of Omaha Beach (1944)
To Yalta: By Way of Bretton Woods and Quebec (1944)
To Yalta, with a Detour at Moscow
To Yalta: FDR's Rocky Road
Yalta...
...And After
Harry Truman at Potsdam
A Different World: The Atomic Bomb and Japan's Surrender
Conclusion
Notes
For Further Reading
The Cold War, or the Renewal of U.S.-Russian Rivalry (1945--1949)
Truman and a New World
The Victor in a Hostile World: Europe
The Victor in a Hostile World: Asia
Dean Acheson's American Century
The Awful Year of 1946: Europe and the
Middle East
The Awful Year of 1946: Atomic Energy and Henry Wallace
Creating the Postwar World: Kennan and the
Long Telegram
Creating the Postwar World: The Truman
Doctrine
Creating the Postwar World: The Marshall Plan
Creating the Postwar World: Lippmann's
Laments, Truman's Triumphs
Creating the Postwar World: Alliances with
Latin America
Creating the Postwar World: NATO
Winning the Cold War
Notes
For Further Reading
The Big Turn: The Era of the Korean War (1949--1952)
Two Shocks and a New World
NSC-68: Why and How the U.S. Will Fight the
Cold War
The Decision to Build the "Super'': Atomic Policy (1945--1952)
McCarthy, Acheson, and the Call to Action
Korea: The Unexpected War
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Presidential Power and the UN
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Remarrying
Chiang on Taiwan
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Japan
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Indochina and Southeast Asia
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Rearming West Germany
The Big Turn of 1949--1950: Rollback and the Start of a Twenty-Year U.S.-China
Conflict
McCarthy and MacArthur
Conclusion: The Big Turn of 1949--1951
Notes
For Further Reading
The Era of Eisenhower: The Good Old Days (1953--1960)
Eisenhower and Dulles: At Home
Eisenhower and Dulles Abroad: Capitalism and Nuclear Wars
Eisenhower and Dulles Abroad: Revolutions
and the CIA
"You Boys must be Crazy'': Eisenhower and
Indochina (1953--1954)
Picking Up the Pieces in Asia (1954--1961)
The "Agonizing Reappraisal'': Eisenhower,
Dulles, and Europe
A Turn: Suez and Hungary, 1956
Europe Is Europeanized as the U.S. Economy
Is Less U.S. (1957--1960)
Eisenhower, His Doctrine, and Crisis (1957--1960)
Castro and the Threat to the Monroe
Doctrine (1957--1960)
Sputnik versus U-2: The U.S.-Soviet Rivalry (1957--1960)
The Eisenhower Era as Fantasy and Fact
Notes
For Further Reading
JFK and LBJ: From the New Frontier through
the Great Society to Vietnam (1961--1969)
Kennedy
A City on the Hill on the New Frontier
The Consensus Presidency
The Consensus Economy
The Challenge: Latin America and the Alliance for Progress
The Challenge: The Bay of Pigs
The Challenge: Vietnam (1961--1963)
The Superpowers: From Vienna and Tanks in July
...To the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
The Fallout from the Missile Crisis
LBJ: At Home and the Gulf of Tonkin
LBJ and Latin America: The Johnson Doctrine
in Action
LBJ and Vietnam: That "Bitch of a War''
LBJ and Vietnam: The Miscalculations
LBJ and Vietnam: At Home
Other Costs of Vietnam: U.S. Relations with
Africa, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union
JFK, LBJ Bonnie
Clyde
Notes
For Further Reading
Coming to Terms with History: The Nixon-Kissinger Years (1969--1976)
Of Outhouses and Cowboys
...And Woodrow Wilson and Elephants
Vietnam and the Nixon Doctrine (1969--1972)
Cambodia, Laos, and Kent State
The Great Turnaround: The Draft Provides Political Room
The Great Turnaround: The Economy
The Great Turnaround: China
The Great Turnaround: The Soviets and
Vietnam
Detente's Turnaround: Chile
Detente's Turnaround: The Middle East
Detente's Turnaround: The Arab Oil Embargo
Detente's Turnaround: The Allies and a Bad "Year of Europe''
Detente's Turnaround: Africa
Detente's Turnaround: The Last Days of the
Vietnam War and Nixon's Imperial Presidency
Detente's Turnaround: The Ford Presidency (1974--1977)
Adjusting to a New World
Notes
For Further Reading
Back to the Future: The Carter-Reagan Years (1977--1988)
Jimmy Carter: The Search for a
Foreign-Policy Consensus
Jimmy Carter: The Search for a Foreign Policy
A Victory: The Panama Canal Treaties
A Victory: The Camp David Accords
Defeat: Carter, Africa, and Andrew Young
Defeat: Somoza Falls, Sandinistas Rise, Salvadorans Kill
Defeat: Carter, The Shah, and the Ayatollah
Defeat: Carter, Salt II, and Afghanistan
The Carter Response and Defeat (1980)
Reagan
The Reagan Foreign-Policy Structure: Four
Cornerstones
The Great Debate over the Use of Force
Shifting Sands: The Economy
The Superstructure: The Reagan Doctrine (or Wilsonianism Updated)
The Reagan Doctrine, Latin America, and the Ticking Time Bomb
The Reagan Doctrine, the Middle East, and
the Iran-Contra Affair
Reagan, the Soulless Empire, and the INF Treaty
Legacies of the 1980s
Notes
For Further Reading
New World Order to World Disorder: Bush and
Clinton (1989--1993)
From Dorothy to Lula
"The End of the Middle Ages'' in Central America?
The Invasion of Panama
The Historic Turn of the Late Twentieth
Century: Bush and Gorbachev
The Historic Turn of the Late Twentieth
Century: Bush and Yeltsin
The Post--Cold-War Disorder: War with Iraq
The New Disorder: Bush to Clinton
Clinton's World: The Problem of Asia
Clinton's World: The Problem of the Blocs
Clinton's World: The New World Disorder
Clinton's World: The American Age
Notes
For Further Reading
U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State
General Bibliography
Acknowledgments to the First Edition
Photo Credits
Index