The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations

This new first volume proposes that the British North American colonists' desire for expansion, security and prosperity is the essence of American foreign relations.

William Earl Weeks (Author)

9781107005907, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 2013

336 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.59 kg

'William Weeks is to be congratulated on his concise and masterful synthesis relating the rise of the American republic. His account provides the best explanation we have of how the concept of 'empire' can integrate both external and internal developments in the formative era of American history. Teachers and students alike will both admire and benefit greatly from the skill with which Weeks accomplishes this task.' J. C. A. Stagg, University of Virginia

Since their first publication, the four volumes of the Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations have served as the definitive source for the topic, from the colonial period to the Cold War. This entirely new first volume narrates the British North American colonists' pre-existing desire for expansion, security and prosperity and argues that these desires are both the essence of American foreign relations and the root cause for the creation of the United States. They required the colonists to unite politically, as individual colonies could not dominate North America by themselves. Although ingrained localist sentiments persisted, a strong, durable Union was required for mutual success, thus American nationalism was founded on the idea of allegiance to the Union. Continued tension between the desire for expansion and the fragility of the Union eventually resulted in the Union's collapse and the Civil War.

1. Origins of the American empire and union
2. A perilous union, 1783–96
3. The 'Empire of Liberty' on land and sea
4. Towards hemispheric superiority
5. Freedom's empire
6. Expansionist vistas: Canada, Oregon, California and Texas
7. Bullying Britain, conquering Mexico, claiming the canal
8. Disunion
9. The imperial crisis, 1861–5.

Subject Areas: Diplomacy [JPSD], History of the Americas [HBJK], History [HB]