The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898This classic work, by the distinguished historian Walter LaFeber, presents his widely influential argument that economic causes were the primary forces propelling America to world power in the nineteenth century. Cornell University Press is proud to issue this thirty-fifth anniversary edition, featuring a new preface by the author."In this Beveridge Award-winning study, Walter LaFeber... probes beneath the apparently quiet surface of late nineteenth-century American diplomacy, undisturbed by major wars and undistinguished by important statements of policy. He finds those who shaped American diplomacy believed expanding foreign markets were the cure for recurring depressions.... In thoroughly documenting economic pressure on American foreign policy of the late nineteenth century, the author has illuminated a shadowy corner of the national experience.... The theory that America was thrust by events into a position of world power it never sought and was unprepared to discharge must now be re-examined. Also brought into question is the thesis that American policymakers have depended for direction on the uncertain compass of utopian idealism."--American Historical Review |
Contents
Years of Preparation 18601889 | 1 |
The Intellectual Formulation | 62 |
Josiah Strong and the Missionary Frontier | 72 |
Brooks Adams Alfred Thayer Mahan and the | 80 |
The Ideological Consensus | 95 |
The Strategic Formulation | 102 |
The Economic Formulation | 150 |
80 | 194 |
The Explosion | 259 |
Aftermath | 270 |
New Problems New Friends New Foes | 284 |
Approach to War | 326 |
with Spain 1897 to February 1898 | 370 |
The Decision for | 379 |
Epilogue | 407 |
Selected Bibliography | 418 |
Depression Diplomacy 18931895 | 197 |
The Venezuelan Boundary Crisis of 1895 | 242 |
Acknowledgments | 427 |