Foto de l'autor

Michael H. Hunt (1942–2018)

Autor/a de Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy

14 obres 422 Membres 4 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Michael H. Hunt is the Everett H. Emerson Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author or editor of twelve books, including The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader, Second Edition (OUP, 2014) and Ideology and U.S. mostra'n més Foreign Policy, Second Edition (2009). He is also the coauthor, with Steven I. Levine, of Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam (2012). mostra'n menys

Obres de Michael H. Hunt

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Data de naixement
1942-12-19
Data de defunció
2018-04-12
Gènere
male

Membres

Ressenyes

Hunt lays out a great analysis of US involvement with China from the beginning of the republic until the outbreak of WWI. He details how American traders and missionaries followed the British into China because they had very little influence of their own. He also shows how Americans had big dreams of China, both financially and spiritually. He calls this group "the Open-Door Constituency" because it was people who wanted China to be open to them despite a lack of strong official US presence in the region. This constituency was largely merchants and missionaries, but also included some captains of industry in the United States, especially railroad investors who dreamed of unending trade to the west coast and then to China. This dream had almost no basis in reality as the Chinese had very little interest in American goods (or Christianity) and the masses of the Chinese could not afford them anyway.

Hunt does an excellent job of showing the discrimination that Chinese felt in the United States and then shows how that affected the attitudes of Chinese policy makers. There was not a strong impact in the actual relationship because the Qing government was so weak by the time of the Exclusion Act, but it did further sour the Chinese on the United States. Americans, however, were oblivious to this antipathy, instead viewing themselves as saviors of China. Hunt see in this a messianic complex for Americans who thought they could save China spiritually and materially. It was part of the American mission to save other peoples who were less fortunate but could learn from the American example. It never occurred to them that the Chinese might not be grateful for their efforts, even during riots like the Boxer Rebellion, which was blamed on the Qing government and some backward superstitious leaders.

This book is 30 years old now, but it stands the test of time. It is a great introduction to early US-China relations and is very easy to read, despite still offering some nuanced analysis.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Scapegoats | Jul 9, 2014 |
An interesting collection of documents on the US involvement in the Vietnam war. It is very American centric with most of the documents being about America and it's role in the war. It does include some quite good documents from the Communist side and for that it's valuable. I also liked that it had a focus on the pre-1965 conflict. What I didn't like was it's unspoken assumption that the US and North Vietnam were active participants in the war but South Vietnam was passive. There are only a few documents from South Vietnam. Unfortunately an opportunity lost.… (més)
 
Marcat
bookmarkaussie | May 24, 2012 |
Hunt traces how PRC foreign policy developed from the end of the Qing dynasty through the foundation of the PRC. He argues that the CCP inherited many assumptions from the struggles of China against imperialist exploitation. China's humiliation at foreign hands was not unique in the world, but China's history of state strength (or at least the perception of that historical strength) was unusual and combined with resentment of foreign incursions to create a national consensus that the country had to recover its strength to recover its dignity.

Hunt details a lot of more specific inherited ideas. One is the two tendencies in policies of resistance to imperialism: cooperation in attempts to limit imperialist damage and resistance based on popular resistance even when the state is weak. When one failed, the other was attempted until it failed and the first took over again. Coupled with that is distrust of foreign alliances, which came from trying to play one imperial power off another. The Soviet Union managed to escape this because of its ideology and occasional support for the CCP, but it eventually provoked a strong backlash by again siding with foreign powers and the Nationalist government against the CCP.

Another assumption was the importance of the periphery to central state security. This was both a Qing policy before imperialism and a memory of the Japanese using Korea and the French using Indochina as jumping off points to move into China proper.

Hunt also spends a great deal of time discussing the importance of Mao. By the mid-1930's, Mao was the dominant voice in foreign affairs, although he was not yet able to simply dictate policy as he would in later years. One interesting point Hunt makes is that Mao was looking to cooperate with the US at the end of WWII, but was counting on another year of war to position the party most advantageously. He was completely surprised by the abrupt end of the war and the Soviet move into Manchuria. Even then he had not given up on his plan of cooperation. It was not until the Marshall mission that he dedicated the party to a policy of complete victory through civil war.

This book starts slow, largely rehashing the late Qing and early Warlord periods, but it picks up with the formation of the CCP and the rise to power of Mao. He does not discuss domestic politics except where necessary, allowing him to focus almost exclusively on foreign policy. Hunt is very effective in outlining the development of CCP assumptions and how those were manifested in foreign policy. Well-worth a read for anyone interested in Chinese history or foreign policy.
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Scapegoats | Jan 6, 2008 |
Breakthrough book about how unstated assumptions of US culture affect US foreign policy, often in detrimental ways. The three bigs assumptions are 1) US greatness. 2) Fear of revolution 3) Racial hierarchy. US greatness is incontestable. Fear of revolution is more controversial, which Hunt demonstrates very strongly. The US doesn't start that way, but the French Revolution combined with the inherent belief in private property to make the US much more conservative. The issue of racism is murkier. Hunt has loads of political cartoons that illustrate US racial attitudes, but it is difficult to separate racism from the ideas of power/capability and the general practice of demonizing the enemy. Hunt makes a very convincing argument that cannot be dismissed, but could be more developed.… (més)
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Marcat
Scapegoats | Oct 20, 2007 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
14
Membres
422
Popularitat
#57,804
Valoració
3.9
Ressenyes
4
ISBN
40

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