Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, this reader uses a carefully selected group of primary sources and analytical essays to allow users to test the interpretations of distinguished historians and draw their own conclusions about the history of American foreign policy. This book serves as an effective educational tool for courses on U.S. foreign policy, recent U.S. history, or 20th Century U.S. history. The Seventh Edition introduces new studies on America's early foreign relations which seek to position the nation's post "9-11" attitudes and behaviors within historical context. Some of the new literature spotlights cultural relations, and the ways in which culturally constructed attitudes about class, gender, race, and national identity have shaped American's perceptions of the world and subsequently its overseas relationships.
Hard to really give this a bad rating as it's a collection of things, but Merrill/Patton's approach to summarizing a massive amount of history is stellar, and the best I've ever seen. Huge diversity of opinions and documents, while still linking together to form a coherent history.
This is an outstanding collection of primary source documents and thoughtful essays, covering the most important events and concepts of the history of American foreign relations. This volume provoked numerous thoughtful discussions in my class.