From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations since 1776; Diplomatic History; Journal of American History; Diplomacy and Statecraft; Cold War History

• Published in: Journal of American studies 2010-08, Vol.44 (3)
• Main Authors: SEWELL, BEVAN, ENGERMAN, DAVID C, CRAIG, CAMPBELL, HEISS, MARY ANN, CASEY, STEVEN, Herring, George C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Historical text analysis
• ISSN: 0021-8758; 1469-5154
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021875810001696

The Cold War era, he writes, lacks the breadth of earlier passages with the focus primarily on "diplomatic and military topics." According to this line of argument, America has rarely, if ever, acted malevolently or aggressively on the world stage; if it has done bad things (like the Vietnam War), the culprit is not the United States itself but well-intentioned leaders making understandable (or even unavoidable) mistakes. [...]all Americans, policymakers and private citizens alike, must abandon the age-old idea of American exceptionalism, with its built-in assumption of American superiority, and work toward a true partnership with other nations based on equality, cooperation, and mutuality. [...]his book is a model of how diplomatic historians can integrate these other narratives into a coherent whole: rather than just focus on the dead white leaders, he shows how other important actors in American society can be drawn into the scope of diplomatic history.