Richard D. Challener - Böcker

This collection of essays representing new thought on U.S. appeasement policy in 1930's Europe enlarges the traditional focus of research beyond United States-German relations by investigating American appeasement policy toward different nations. Zeroing in on the ideology of policymakers and the influences of various groups on the development of appeasement policy during the Roosevelt administration, the essays pose new questions about the role of antibolshevism, examine appeasement as one part of the quest for stability and peace in Europe, and provide different and illuminating insights not only on appeasement but also on the nature of U.S. foreign policy prior to World War II. The new scholarship presented here contributes to a more complete understanding of how the United States responded to the challenge of fascism in Europe during the 1930s.Schmitz's introduction defines appeasement and discusses why and how the policy was formulated and in what respects it differed from the policy of Great Britain. The book outlines European political conditions of the period and how U.S. appeasement policy sought to prevent German and Italian aggression by either applying economic pressure or offering incentives for cooperation with Western democracies. In the first chapter by Wayne S. Cole, the three distinct schools of historical interpretation that have emerged to explain U.S. appeasement policy are reviewed and assessed. Where as the ideological dimensions of appeasement have been long overlooked by historians, Douglas Little's chapter on the British and American responses to the Spanish Civil War addresses the problem of how to contain the right without aiding Soviet foreign policy. Chapter three, by Jane Karoline Vieth, reexamines the crucial events leading up to the Munich agreement and its aftermath through a study of the thoughts and actions of Neville Chamberlain, Roosevelt, and Joseph P. Kennedy, and their critics. In chapter four, Schmitz investigates how prior American experience with Fascist Italy influenced U.S. policy toward Nazi Germany and motivated attempts to use Mussolini as a moderating force on Hitler. Chapter four also deals with material that is crucial for understanding American policy: the question of Roosevelt's response to British appeasement. The concluding essay by Richard A. Harrison examines possible U.S. and British alternatives to Chamberlain's appeasement policies that could have been employed. Appeasement in Europe will aid historians, students, and informed general readers in attaining a more complete understanding of American appeasement policy within the broader context of U.S. diplomacy during the 1930s.

After the Spanish-American War the United States, both by design and by accident, became involved in the Caribbean and the Far East on a scale that would have seemed highly improbable before 1898. As an "emerging" world power, the United States had to grapple with new issues, among them the role of military men and military power in protecting and advancing America's position in the world. Richard D. Challener has examined civil-military relationships in the period 1898-1914 to answer the following questions: To what extent did army and navy officers develop opinions on foreign policy issues? Were the admirals and generals consulted by the civilian officials of government, and did they participate in decision-making? How did the President and State Department use the military services in execution of foreign policy? Were military and diplomatic policy co-ordinated? Does an examination of these relationships help to assess either the interpretations of Kennan and the "realists" or Williams and the "New Left"? And ultimately, how effectively did the United States manage to reconcile force and diplomacy?This book sustains the case for interpreting 1898 and its aftermath as a deliberate search for an "informal" or "insular" empire and shows that American leaders, both civil and military, accepted an interventionist ethic. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.