Customer Reviews

A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy

5 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
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Joyce Kaufman explains the choices made by the people in charge of American foreign policy from the beginning to now and tells why the choices were made. Stripped of ideology and rhetoric she tells the story simply but without patronizing the reader. She explains the dominating ideas behind the choices and the domestic and international economic and political influences that helped to determine the choices. A good read.

This book may be appropriate for a high school class room, but it is inappropriate for a college level class. It is overly simplistic, makes huge generalizations, and completely ignores huge parts of America's foreign policy. While I realize that it is supposed to be "concise," it is concise to the point of being misleading. It barely touches on the role of economics and the power the U.S. exerts through the IMF, the World Bank, and foreign aid. It looks at only the biggest events that everybody already knows about-Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, etc. If you want to learn something new or interesting, buy another book. Plan Colombia? Not mentioned even once. Propping up dictators in countries around the world? Not here. If you want to educate a 9th grader on foreign policy, this is a good book, but if you want to educate a college student, buy something more critical, with more depth.

A well written book that simplifies the history of U.S. Foreign policy. A good read for anyone who is interested in broadening their understanding.

I would have to say I quite enjoyed Kaufman's book. Being a political science major, you often find yourself being caught up in difficult to read journals and books. However, Kaufman does an extremely good job of using simple language to discuss how history has shaped our current foreign policy and how we can look to shape it in the future.