From Colony to Superpower

 

From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 - by George C. Herring

What a great find this was!  I came across this thing completely by accident; at a “library rummage sale” for $1.00.  My initial thought was that even if I didn’t enjoy this book, it would look mightily impressive on my bookshelf. You see, this thing is BIG and THICK. In other words, impressive.  Despite how much a person loves books, you can’t totally believe them if they tell you that they’ve read absolutely everything that they have displayed in their personal library.  Well, I did tepidly pick this up and began reading, and fortunately I was immediately hooked.

The problem now was that this thing was so huge and cumbersome, that it was a hefty chore to pick up and, say, read by the pool or something. So I decided to splurge and buy an e-copy for the Kindle at $9.99.  Definitely worth the investment. Not only is a book like this easier to read in electronic format, but it’s also a lot less likely intimidate the reader. No matter how much I enjoy a book, if I’m only on page 50 of a 1,000-page volume with very small print, it’s very easy for me to become psychologically overwhelmed.  So staring at a screen with “normal” sized print allows one not to worry too much about whether or not they’ll be able to finish such a monster during their lifetime.

Anyway, on to reviewing the book.  This thing was phenomenal.  I would argue that it’s essentially a textbook.  But if you love history as much as I do, such a description shouldn’t deter one from enjoyment. In fact, it’s more of a “plus” than a “minus”.  This book is essentially a history book of the United States with the focus, however, being only on foreign relations.

If I were to be completely honest, this is my favorite part of history.  I don’t really care as much about the domestic affairs of a country. Many presidents, such as Lyndon Johnson, felt the opposite, whereas his successor, Richard Nixon, would agree with me.  Different strokes for different folks. Still, though, 230 years of foreign affairs is an awful lot to digest (the book was written in 2007), and even though this book is 1,000 pages long, you can almost argue that it’s more of a “Cliff’s Notes” account as opposed to an exhaustive history. That’s fine, though, as one can easily find extensive volumes that focus on all of the key events that this book covers.

As we begin the history of the United States, “foreign affairs” IS basically synonymous with “history” as the young nation’s most visible and noteworthy events dealt in some way with other nations.  Whether its independence from England, buying the Louisiana Purchase from France, or the tenuous relations with Spain over Florida, foreign affairs is pretty much all there is when we say “history”.  In fact, what is a tad sad is that it was quite common for powerful nations to only grow and succeed by being overtly rapacious. So there’s a lot of “conquering” going on, mainly on the continent of North America.  It is sad to see so much greed and neglect towards non-White people, but history isn’t always pretty. We most also remember that such behavior was in the “European genes”.   It seemed that once the nation endures the Civil War, the government becomes much more altruistic and less avaricious, but the end goal for whatever relation is being pursued is always geared towards an advantage for the U.S.  Again, this is true with any nation, especially the superpowers.  How else is a “power” supposed to ever have “power”?  Especially the “super” kind?

Speaking of the U.S. Civil War, once we arrive at that event, we can see the shift in narrative towards where the author does intend to focus. In other words, we don’t read an awful lot of what we normally read when studying the years 1861-1865.  We rarely (if ever) come across names such as Gettysburg, Antietam, or Appomattox.  Here is where we remind ourselves that we’re NOT reading a strictly history book, but one that focuses on relationships with other countries.  Well, believe it or not, there’s actually quite a lot of history during this time that does, in fact, deal with other nations.  Example: We read about how there are strong sentiments across parts of Europe for the South to win the conflict.  Sure, slavery is evil and should be abolished, but the South is where cotton comes from, and without cotton, many of the factories across Europe will need to close causing massive unemployment.  So, yes, another reminder about how people mostly tend to think about how events will affect themselves personally rather than the greater good of mankind. 

Although the author never explicitly states so, we come to conclusion that part of the reason the U.S. became a “super” power is that, until the early 20^th century, the country was mostly isolated.  So it was allowed to flourish and prosper without interference from other strong neighboring countries in Europe and/or Asia. By the time the world became “smaller” due to advanced technology, the U.S. now had a substantial financial advantage.  We must also remember that as horrible as the two world wars were, the U.S. got off rather easy compared to those in Europe and Asia.  Other than Pearl Harbor, there was no fighting on our homeland.  So not having to deal with such travesties allowed faster growth and a stronger focus on the future without catastrophic distractions.

The book is broken up into chapters that each cover about a decade and each chapter is about 50-60 pages.  The major events covered are probably known by most, but the minor ones are covered here in detail as well.  Most modern readers know a bit about Vietnam, Iran, and Iraq, but it’s nice to also be reminded of such conflicts in places such as Lebanon, Argentina, and Bosnia.  In fact, I can’t help but wonder if the fact that I read so much history may have made some of these events easier to assimilate than it might be for those who haven’t studied as much history.  Much of what I read here, I already “knew”, so I’m not sure if a novice would enjoy such brief descriptions as much as I did. Of course, there’s tons of more detailed readings out there for those who want to learn more.

I also found the book very even-handed.  Most of the major recent U.S. Presidents get plenty of page space, and the author treats them all with both praise and criticism when warranted. This is important as someone who has hagiographic feelings towards a certain political party might feel that this author is demonizing their political gods. However, not to sound snooty, but I seriously doubt such an individual would bother to even pick up a book such as this. That’s a bit of a shame.  I feel that at this point and juncture in U.S. History, our biggest problem is that people simply don’t read enough. They blindly follow any politician that tells them what they want to hear.  Speaking of learned material, another advantage to reading this book in e-format is that the author uses an awful lot of big words, and it’s much easier to find the definition of such terms while using a Kindle (if you don’t know, you just press and hold the word with your finger and the definition pops up on your e-reader).

If you love history, this book is an incredibly valuable use of your time.  You’ll spend an awful lot of energy and effort with this thing, but it’s well worth it.  I would almost love to make this required reading for every high school senior.  I certainly see a lot more benefits in reading this than studying Geometry or even learning an obtuse skill such as cursive handwriting.  History really can teach us an awful lot about how we need to act in the future; especially where foreign countries are involved.