Michael H. Hunt – författare

Oxford University Press is pleased to be the new publisher of the bestselling anthology The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader, Second Edition. Edited by Michael H. Hunt, this collection invites students to interpret and evaluate 180 documents organized into forty topical sections ranging over the last seven decades and virtually the entire globe. It serves as an ideal companion volume to Hunt's text, A World Transformed: 1945 to the Present, but can also be used as a stand-alone reader in a variety of courses in history, international relations, and global studies.

Repeatedly in the twentieth century, the United States has been involved in confrontations with other countries, each with the potential for widespread international and domestic upheaval, even disaster. In this book Michael Hunt focuses on seven such crises, presenting for each an illuminating introduction and a rich collection of original documents. His epilogue considers the nature of international crises and the U.S. record in dealing with them.The case studies include: •the American entry into World War I the Japanese-American rivalry that led to Pearl Harbor •the origins of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War •the collision between China and the United States during the Korean War•the confrontation over Soviet missiles in Cuba •Lyndon Johnson`s commitment to war in Vietnam •and the American entanglement in the Iranian revolutionThe studies allow the reader to see U.S. foreign policymaking firsthand and to understand it as something that is shaped by interactions with other nations and leaders as well as by American values, attitudes, and needs. To provide an international perspective, both the narrative and the documents give as much attention to foreign policymakers as to their American counterparts, emphasizing the invariably dynamic, often confused, and sometimes chaotic interaction between the two sides.

This new edition of Michael H. Hunt's classic reinterpretation of American diplomatic history includes a preface that reflects on the personal experience and intellectual agenda behind the writing of the book, surveys the broad impact of the book's argument, and addresses the challenges to the thesis since the book's original publication. In the wake of 9/11 this interpretation is more pertinent than ever. Praise for the previous edition: "Clearly written and historically sound. . . . A subtle critique and analysis."—Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs "A lean, plain-spoken treatment of a grand subject. . . . A bold piece of criticism and advocacy. . . . The right focus of the argument may insure its survival as one of the basic postwar critiques of U.S. policy."—John W. Dower, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists "A work of intellectual vigor and daring, impressive in its scholarship and imaginative in its use of material."—Ronald Steel, Reviews in American History "A masterpiece of historical compression."—Wilson Quarterly  “A penetrating and provocative study. . . . A pleasure both to read and to contemplate."—John Martz, Journal of Politics

This book features the 21st-century United States through the lens of global history. What road did Americans travel to reach global preeminence? Taking the long historical view, Hunt demonstrates that wealth, confidence, and leadership were key elements to America's ascent. In an analytic narrative that illuminates the past rather than indulges in political triumphalism, he provides crucial insights into the country's problematic place in the world today. Hunt charts America's rise to global power from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a culminating multilayered dominance achieved in the mid-twentieth century. He examines how the United States remade great power relations, fashioned limits for the third world, and shaped the current international economic and cultural order. Hunt concludes by addressing current issues, such as how durable American power really is and what options remain for America's future.

This is a well-rounded collection of the war's many voices. An essential new resource for students and teachers of the Vietnam War, this concise collection of primary sources opens a valuable window on an extraordinarily complex conflict. The materials gathered here, from both the American and Vietnamese sides, remind readers that the conflict touched the lives of many people in a wide range of social and political situations and spanned a good deal more time than the decade of direct U.S. combat. Indeed, the U.S. war was but one phase in a string of conflicts that varied significantly in character and geography. Michael Hunt brings together the views of the conflict's disparate players - from Communist leaders, Vietnamese peasants, Saigon loyalists, and North Vietnamese soldiers to U.S. policymakers, soldiers, and critics of the war. By allowing the participants to speak, this volume encourages readers to formulate their own historically grounded understanding of a still controversial struggle.