31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable study of the roots of American diplomacy, May 1, 2002
Many historians of diplomacy refer to some inchoate set of common principles and ideas that seems to lie behind all the twists and turns of American 20th-century foreign policy; Hunt actually tries to determine what that shared ideology was. He describes three basic components of this shared ideology: 1) America's vision of national greatness, 2) the American propensity to view the world's population in a hierarchy of race (and later culture as its substitute), and 3) America's growing disappointment and horror at failed revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries. He makes a sound, logical argument, and this book holds an importance place in its field. Certainly, Americans have always believed (and rightly so, in my opinion) that theirs is the greatest political system on earth. Indisputably, Americans have tended to assign characteristics to peoples on the basis of race (from blacks to eastern Europeans to Asians). I can't buy as strongly into the effects of failed revolutions--surely, the French Revolution shocked and displeased Americans who expected it to be a revolution in the American vein and just the first in a series of changes that would bring peace and freedom to all peoples. The Bolshevik Revolution also affected Americans' views of the world significantly, but I think Hunt overexaggerates the fears generated at home by Third World revolutions abroad. As Hunt would be the first to admit, ideology alone cannot explain foreign policy, and I find that his arguments do not explain to my satisfaction the disparity between Jeffersonian/Wilsonian and Federalist/FDR/LBJ thinkers. Overall, though, I found this book noble in its intentions and quite utilitarian in covering a neglected area in the field of foreign policy.
Then I read the last chapter. After putting forth his arguments, Hunt feels compelled to proscribe a new, more effective foreign policy for the United States. The fact that this exceeds the purview of an historian is beyond the point. His suggestions for changing the ideological notions of American diplomacy strike me as dangerously isolationist (despite his assertion to the contrary), exceedingly liberal, and naïve. He basically argues that America should get out of the business of imperialism, stop worrying about what other countries are doing, and devote itself to creating social and political equality at home. The Cold War had not ended when this book was written, but his suggestion was that we basically let Communism determine its own future while we implement socialism at home. Hunt must have been terribly disappointed to see Ronald Reagan win the Cold War so soon after this book's publication because that victory invalidates many of his recommendations. Hunt's main contention is that America cannot simultaneously maintain liberty at home while working to spread freedom abroad--while I think he is completely wrong about this, the subject is being hotly debated in the context of the war on terrorism and will surely be debated for all time.
I do recommend this book. I disagree with his conclusions, but his points are presented clearly, and his insights into history are invaluable. I should also mention that he ends the book with a chapter discussing relevant books in the field of ideology and foreign policy--although his references seem weighted toward revisionist/leftist scholars, it is a very useful introduction to further readings in the important and always hotly debated field of American diplomacy.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thoughtful and incredible study., June 3, 1998
By A Customer
I have just finished my master's thesis on American foreign policy and Michael Hunt's book was one of the foundations of my study. It is a highly readable and fascinating study. I can recommend it for the general reader as well as the academic. It is one of the most insightful books I have ever read.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid introduction, October 30, 2005
The general American needs to read this book. Hunt provides a solid and thoughtful introduction to the roots of American foreign policy, and does so in a clear and crisp way that makes this book suited for both academics and the average reader. Americans are sadly under-educated regarding their own history and Hunt should be the starting point for anybody interested in understanding where the foreign policy ambitions and motives of this nation come from.
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