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Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776 Paperback – May 15, 1998

by Walter McDougall (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 91 ratings
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Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Walter McDougall reinterprets the traditions that have shaped U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to the present in "an entertaining and iconoclastic fashion" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

In a concise analysis, McDougall divides American diplomatic history into two stages, which he calls "Old Testament" and "New Testament" phases.

The “Old Testament” phase, which ran from the Revolution to the 1890s, centered on protecting and perfecting America within. The "New Testament" phase, from the Spanish-American War to the present, is more interventionist, featuring competing ideals of containment, expansion, and meliorism. Within the “testament” phases, McDougall goes on to further categorize eight conflicting schools of thought.

Conversational in tone and highly educational, readers will appreciate McDougall’s astute observations and overview of American foreign policy. Crucially, McDougall contends that by projecting U.S. standards and ideals onto other countries, the U.S. repeatedly overextends its resources and pays too a high a price for assuming such risk.

In Promised Land, Crusader State, "McDougall has written a lively and provocative book" (Wall Street Journal) that is "a rich study of the American experience" (Los Angeles Times).
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harper Paperbacks
  4. Publication date
    May 15, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0395901324
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0395901328
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Masterful wit, clarity, and insight." Christian Science Monitor

"A rich study of the American experience." The Los Angeles Times

"First rate." The New York Times

"A valuable guide for today's policymakers." - Henry Kissinger

"an entertaing and iconoclastic fashion" The Philadelphia Inquirer —

About the Author

Walter A. McDougall received the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1986. A professor of international relations and history at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Reasearch Institute, he lives in Philadelphia.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (May 15, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0395901324
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0395901328
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

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Walter A. McDougall

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4.5 out of 5 stars
91 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant mixture of diplomatic history and political science
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book, written by a professional IR and diplomatic history scholar, takes American foreign policy from the time of the American Revolution to the late 1990s and digests it into eight schools or rule groups of approaches. Four of these are from the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century (the Old Testament in the author's analogy) and four are from the 1890s through the Vietnam War era (the New Testament). Although the main body ends with the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, the epilogue takes the analysis through to the Clinton administration. Highly recommended for general reading or as a textbook for entry-level classes on American foreign policy at the university level.
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Craig Matteson
5.0 out of 5 stars America's varied doctrines of dealing with the world
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2004
Verified Purchase
I first saw Walter McDougall on the C-SPAN Booknotes show discussing this book in 1997. He impressed me so much that I went online and ordered it from Amazon instantly. It is a great read because McDougall writes clearly, concisely, and with a rare vividness for a scholar.

This is not a book of American History per se. It is a book about American's developing and changing doctrines of how to deal with the world beyond our borders. McDougall discusses eight doctrines with four under the "Old Testament" heading (when America was basically turned inward and worried only about the Western Hemisphere), and four under the "New Testament" (when America became a player on the world stage and, briefly, a colonial power).

Understanding these doctrines is essential to understanding America's changing place in the world. These doctrines conflict with each other and yet the all still echo through history to our present. This leads to some of the complexity in our present political relationships with the world and our own muddled sense of ourselves and our role in the world. Certainly, America has done some wonderful things for the world, but the wake of our great ship of state has also made navigation tough for some of the smaller barks trying to stay afloat in the storms of history.

This is a fine book and a great read. I encourage everyone, especially students and young people, to read it carefully and to consider seriously the arguments Prof. McDougall has put forth. You will be better off whether or not you end up agreeing with him.
10 people found this helpful
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dcreader
5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting essay on America's foreign policy traditions
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2000
Verified Purchase
McDougall identifies 8 different traditions in American foreign policy, which fall into two "testaments." The "old testament" consists of traditions such as liberty, unilateralism and the American System. Essentially, it involves Americans perfecting their own country and looking towards their own part of the world as the place they need to be most concerned. The "new testament" consists of such traditions as containment, expansion and meliorism. It calls for American to play a much broader role in the world's affairs, although for different reasons. McDougall does not purport to have written a comprehensive diplomatic history as to explain it and how it might be used to conduct future diplomacy. "Promised Land" is not highly ideological - some will find his questioning of the Marshall Plan's success and attack on foreign aid infuriating. Others will be unhappy with his assertion that the US is perhaps well served by its participation in the UN and Nato, as long as the USs ability to act unilaterally when necessary is not impeded. For example, he points out that Washington's famous injunction was against "entangling alliances" rather than all alliances and that those which serve the US interest without limited its freedom of action are consistent with Washington rather than opposing it. In perhaps the most interesting "revision" of the entire book, he repudidates the notion that America has ever been an isolationist nation, saying that it really was a concern for our ability to act unilaterally that was at issue and points to a long history of interventionism to protect US interests dating back to Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates. Finally, the book explains the role of religion in the changing nature of America's policies from that of a promised land where we would lead by example primarily to one where we would be more willing to intervene.
9 people found this helpful
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