Alex Bryne – författare

This four-volume collection brings together a diverse array of primary sources that help contextualise the impacts of American imperialism across the long nineteenth century. These fascinating volumes chart the motivations for, and reactions to, the growth of the United States from the American Revolution to the end of the First World War. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, the collection provides a valuable resource for those seeking to explore the causes, course, and consequences of US imperialism from 1775 to 1919.

This volume documents the formation of the United States’ colonial and informal empire in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Central America at the turn of the twentieth century. Taking the cessation of hostilities with Spain as its starting point, this final volume traces the evolution of United States imperialism through to the end of the First World War. The expansion of the United States’ empire during the early twentieth century mirrored its rise on the world stage. Through overseas colonial expansion and the construction of an informal empire centred on the Panama Canal, the United States strove for hegemony in the Americas, and its imperial policies altered the lives of thousands who lived outside its national borders. Specific territories, such as Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, are explored in this volume alongside regional and thematic accounts to provide a detailed and unique insight into the nature of United States imperialism. A host of historic perspectives are presented through a range of source material, including letters, government documents, and published material.

This book demonstrates that during the early twentieth century, the Monroe Doctrine served the role of a national security framework that justified new directions in United States foreign relations when the nation emerged as one of the world’s leading imperial powers. As the United States’ overseas empire expanded in the wake of the Spanish-American War, the nation’s decision-makers engaged in a protracted debate over the meaning and application of the doctrine, aligning it to two antithetical core values simultaneously: regional hegemony in the Western Hemisphere on the one hand, and Pan-Americanism on the other. The doctrine’s fractured meaning reflected the divisions that existed among domestic perceptions of the nation’s new role on the world stage and directed the nation’s approach to key historical events such as the acquisition of the Philippines, the Mexican Revolution, the construction of the Panama Canal, the First World War, and the debate over the League of Nations.