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In his last work before his death in 2014, American historian Martin J. Sklar analyzes the influence of early twentieth-century foreign policy makers, focusing on modernization, global development, and the meaning of the 'American Century'. Calling this group of government officials and their advisors, including business leaders and economists, the 'founders of US foreign policy', Sklar examines their perspective on America's role in shaping human progress from cycles of empires to transnational post-imperialism. Sklar traces how this thinking both anticipated and generated the course of history from the Spanish-American War to World War II, through the Cold War and its outcome, and to post-9/11 global conflicts. The 'founders' legacy is interpreted in Wilson's Fourteen Points, Henry Luce's 1941 'American Century' Life editorial, and foreign policy formulation to the present. Showing how modernization has evolved, Sklar discusses capitalism and socialism in relation to modern democracy in the US and to emergent globalizing forces.
About the author
Martin J. Skar (1935-2014) was an American historian best known for originating the concepts of corporate liberalism, the disaccumulation of capital, and the capitalist-socialist mix. His books include The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law and Politics (Cambridge, 1988) and The United States as a Developing Country: Studies in U.S. History in the Progressive Era and the 1920s (Cambridge, 1992). Sklar was the founding editor of several journals and a former Professor of History at Bucknell University.
Summary
This book examines the thinking of early twentieth-century US foreign policy makers and their advisors, including business leaders and economists - a group the late Martin J. Sklar calls the 'founders of US foreign policy' - and demonstrates how their concern with worldwide modernization and development shaped the 'American Century' and is represented in conflicts today.
