The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home & Abroad 1750 to the Present

by Walter F. LaFeber

Walter LaFeber brings a full range of historical tools to bear on American Diplomatic history--biographical sketches, a concise survey of world events that shaped U.S. policy, a use of American social and cultural history, and a full discussion of the rise of presidential power. Photos and maps.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, International Relations, United States, School

864 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

One of the foremost scholars of American foreign policy, Walter Fredrick LaFeber was the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University. Previous to that he served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell.

Reviews

[Ian Lazarenko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walter F. LaFeber is a widely respected scholar on America's diplomatic history with a laudatory knowledge of the Cold War. This knowledge is evident enough in "The American Age," but is not independent of some rather damning flaws. Of these, the most evident is simply the age of the book; at over twenty-four years old, "The American Age" suffers from lack of access to the Soviet archives many scholars have fawned over since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. This limits the book's perspective to a naively-Western one. This is the second fault: despite the majority of understanding seemingly coming from Western sources, LaFeber is rather quick to denounce any and all American activity as rash and counter-productive. It is no secret that American diplomatic history is riddled with trial and error, but labeling nearly every executive decision as hubris is faulty. With the knowledge of Stalin's genocides against ethnic minorities or the brutal repression of liberal activity in the occupied states of Eastern Europe, are American actions not allowed to be weighed against this alternative?

[S. Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasure to read. It's a well researched, wonderfully written overview of US diplomatic history, but best of all, it's not like reading a history textbook. LaFeber includes just the right details to bring these characters from history back to life.

[Leon Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book about the american external politics since its formation as a state until the end of Reegan era. A good document to help us understand the today politics.

[Richie Richs · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book!!