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The fourth edition of Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations reconceptualizes this long-established classic to focus squarely on methods: not what we do, but how we do what we do. It presents revised, sharply focused essays on methods for researching national security, development, political economy, gender, religion, race, emotion, and nongovernmental organizations, alongside entirely new contributions on digital resources, spatial analysis, technology, materials, the natural world, the interaction of race and empire, US-Indigenous relations, ideology, and culture. The chapters are bracketed with an essay that assesses changes in the conception of US foreign relations history, and with an overview of how US foreign relations history is practiced in China. The essays, by scholars who have made a significant contribution in their areas of specialization, highlight conceptual approaches and methods that, taken together, offer an innovative and practical 'how-to' manual for both experienced scholars and newcomers to the field.
List of contents
Introduction Frank Costigliola and Barbara J. Keys; 1. Three left turns Ryan M. Irwin; 2. Digital resources David Langbart; 3. Materials Gretchen Heefner; 4. Development and growth Stephen Macekura; 5. Capitalism Alex Beasley; 6. Ecological footprints and other forms of spatial analysis Kristin Hoganson; 7. Medicine, science, and the environment Julia F. Irwin; 8. Technology and national security Katherine C. Epstein; 9. National security Melvyn Leffler; 10. Ideology Christopher McKnight Nichols; 11. Race Kaysha Corinealdi; 12. Race and empire Kristin Oberiano; 13. US-Indigenous relations Elspeth Martini; 14. Religion Emily Conroy-Krutz; 15. Gender Megan Threlkeld; 16. Culture Andrew Rotter; 17. Meaning and emotion Frank Costigliola; 18. Nongovernmental organizations Barbara J. Keys; 19. The view from China Niu Ke; Index.
About the author
Frank Costigliola is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. His books include Roosevelt's Lost Alliances, which won the Robert H. Ferrell Prize for best book from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. A former president of SHAFR, he received SHAFR's Graebner Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.Barbara J. Keys is Chair of US History at Durham University. She is a past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and a past winner of the Society's Stuart Bernath Lecture Prize. Her first book Globalizing Sport won the Society's Myrna Bernath Prize.
