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Title: Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945 by Emily S. Rosenberg, Eric Foner ISBN: 0-8090-8798-7 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: February, 1982 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: An illuminating look at U.S. diplomacy from 1890-1945
Comment: I found this book to be more informative and unbiased than I expected. Since Rosenberg approaches her subject from a revisionist standpoint, I feared there would be a politicized undercurrent that would turn me off. Rosenberg's thesis is well-stated and clearly explained. She examines America's economic and cultural expansion in the period between 1890 and 1945 (although she dips rather significantly at times into the late 1940s). What she discovers is a steady progression from private activity to government-led efforts to expand America's influence in the world. At the heart of her study is an ideological concept she calls liberal developmentalism; this uniquely American thinking was, she posits, pervasive in American government and culture by 1890. Americans believed their system was the best in the world and that the export of the American system (free trade, free enterprise, the free flow of information) throughout the world would guarantee America's economic preeminence while building up weaker nations and ultimately securing world peace. American motives were quite selfish, as expansionism seemed to hold the only solution for the depression of the 1890s, but Americans also truly believed the world would benefit by Americanization. She identifies three distinct eras: a "promotional state" from the 1890s up until World War I, in which the government took a hands-off approach to diplomacy while American entrepreneurs and investors worked hard to expand their business to foreign markets; a "cooperative state" in the 1920s, in which government publicly appeared to stay out of diplomatic wrangling but behind the scenes sought to guide investment that would benefit the United States, even if it involved monopolies or American-dominated cartels; and a "regulatory state" in the 1930s and beyond, in which the government actively began to seek the means by which to control the world economy that had fallen into depression as a result of the long-term failures of the cooperative approach. The Great Depression and spread of fascism convinced Roosevelt and others to seek the reins of the world economy.

Rosenberg points out the contradictory nature of American policy. While espousing free trade and free access, America continued to employ protectionist tariffs and did not mind the lack of free access for other nations in American-dominated zones of interest. She clearly explains how de facto diplomacy by private businessmen, while successful in the short-term, was helpless to stop the terrible descent into economic bad times. She easily shows that America was far from isolationist during the first three decades of the twentieth century despite appearances to the contrary. The subject I found most interesting in the book had to do with the export of American cultural values. Rosenberg provides an enlightening discussion of movies/radio, communications, philanthropy, and missionary work in spreading the American way of life to other countries. While this is a rather dry book at times, the discussion of cultural issues is a fascinating examination of a topic often overlooked by authors in this field of study.

The historian in me does frown upon Rosenberg's lack of footnotes. While she does provide a helpful bibliography at the end of the book, the lack of distinct, verifiable citations robs a little bit of the authority so eloquently expressed in her thesis. All in all, though, the book presents a compelling and forceful argument and provides a valuable new insight into the history of post-1890 American diplomacy.

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