The American Century and Beyond: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1893-2014

by George C. Herring

In his last years as president of the United States, an embattled George Washington yearned for a time when his nation would have "the strength of a Giant and there will be none who can make us afraid." At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States seemed poised to achieve a position of world power beyond what even Washington could have imagined.In The American Century and U.S. Foreign Relations, 1893-2014, the second volume of a new split paperback edition of the award-winning From Colony to Superpower, George C. Herring recounts the rise of the United States from the dawn of what came to be known as the American Century. This fast-paced narrative tells a story of stunning successes and tragic failures, illuminating the central importance of foreign relations to the existence and survival of the nation. Herring shows how policymakers defined American interests broadly to include territorial expansion, access to growing markets, and the spread of the "American way of life." He recounts the United States' domination of the Caribbean and Pacific, its decisive involvement in two world wars, and the eventual victory in the half-century Cold War that left it, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world's lone superpower.But the unipolar moment turned out to be stunningly brief. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the emergence of nations such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China have left the United States in a position that is uncertain at best. A new chapter brings Herring's sweeping narrative up through the Global War on Terror to the present.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Politics, United States, American, The United States Of America

762 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

A specialist in the history of American foreign relations, George C. Herring was Alumni Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. Herring received a bachelor's degree from Roanoke College and after service in the U.S. Navy he earned both master's (1962) and doctorate (1965) degrees in History from the University of Virginia. After teaching for four years at Ohio University, Herring joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1969, where he taught until his retirement in 2005.

Reviews

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the other volumes in the Oxford History of the United States, this book is engaging and informative. Unfortunately, it contains some editorial errors that are impossible to ignore. Most inexplicable is the entirely unnecessary three chapter overlap with the previous volume, Years of Peril & Ambition. There are also incorrectly labelled photos in both volumes, and some comically bad hyphenation such as “pla-nning” (p. 282), “inte-rAmerican” (p. 548), and “twel-vethousand” (p. 589).

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The expanded second volume takes the story of American foreign relations through the election of Trump. Herring provides a balanced, thoughtful take on the rise of America to world power, the era of preponderance, and after.

[Alex Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, this is a fine overview of US foreign policy, however, it is extremely, impossibly biased. The book literally dismantles and disregards all the other countries: USSR played an incredible role for US foreign policy in the 20th century, but the author literally misses like 20 facts, doesn’t give the necessary information and takes in all the info of Khrushchev from William Taubman’s book, which is good, however, it is just one source, and Nikita Sergeevich was one of the biggest figures in USSR history.
To that, this book gets automatic -1star for stating that “Stalin was a paranoid who killed millions”
First of all, 845,000 based on KGB database and 785,000 based on MVD database (1953 report for the XX Kpss conference). This myth has to stop. If Stalin did not set communist regime in Eastern Europe — the USSR would have had opposing countries right on the border of USSR, which is not good = he had no choice. I consider Stalin a horrible figure: no one knows how much culture we have lost due to this guy’s censorship, however, I hate him due to actual facts, not facts taken from Solzhenytsin’s “Archipelago Gulag”.
Overall, the book is written very basically too, I think if the author added around 300 extra pages, then it could have been much better, because at some point I did not even understand what was going on. For example, Cuban missile crisis is literally covered on 2-3 pages, which is not enough to even get a base overview of that topic.
Overall, the book is not horrible, but it is not good either.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary summary for anyone taking International Relations, History or Politics seriously. Like most books rushing through numerous major events (ex Spanish War, Panama Canal, WWI and II, forming UN, Cold War hot points, Vietnam era) it of course often feels rushed. Fortunately, the core facts are there and told with good clarity, so you will come away with something for each period.

One weakness is the author is clearly just summarizing what the most popular writers have agreed what the 'narrative' leaving the areas where the author is most deficient of knowledge to be obvious. Some of the strongest areas were (not too surprisingly) the Kennedy and Nixon presidencies, and the Iraq War. Everything through WWI is very rushed, but interesting if you don't know much to begin with. The author offers little for WWII, keeping the focus on the much longer and more significant Cold War decades.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herring's work is unique so far in the Oxford History of the Unite States for its broad time-period and focused interest in one sphere. While this book is not fully satisfying in balancing out the complexity of individual events, it provides a great rough outline of over one-hundred years of foreign relations. This is my second favorite book in the series that I've read after White's tremendous "The Republic for Which it Stands."

[Claire Summers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book! However, the author frequently expressed his opinions as historical facts, which bothered me and made me feel like I was learning only one man’s view. I know true objectivity is impossible, but it would’ve been nice to at least read some opposing opinions!

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read and I learned a lot. This is an essential for history majors.

[Devon Smolak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good; skipped to the 1980s- to understand what the hell happened up until now. More analytical than biased, as much as one can be.

[Sophie Nye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read most of this for my American Foreign Relations class. I really liked it...it was very informative. Definitely learned a lot of new information from it.

[Terry Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Survey

Although this book is packed with detail, it is so as a result of the authors extensive use of secondary sources. I was also very bored with the writing style by chapter 3. I struggled to finish the book.