Progressivism and US Foreign Policy between the World Wars

This book considers eleven twelve key thinkers on American foreign policy during the inter-war period. All put forward systematic proposals for the direction, aims and instruments of American foreign policy; all were listened to, in varying degrees, by the policy makers of the day; all were influential in policy terms, as well as setting the terms of contemporary debate. The focus of the volume is the progressive agenda as it was formulated by Herbert Croly and The New Republic in the run-up to the First World War. An interest in the inter-war period has been sparked by America's part in international politics since 9/11. The neo-conservative ideology behind recent US foreign policy, its democratic idealism backed with force, is likened to a new-Wilsonianism. However, the progressives were more wary of the use of force than contemporary neo-conservatives. The unique focus of this volume and its contextual, Skinnerian approach provides a more nuanced understanding of US foreign policy debates of the long Progressive era than we presently have and provides an important intellectual background to current debates.

1. Introduction: Progressivism in America between the Two World Wars.- 2. Elihu Root, International Law, and the World Court.- 3. Nicholas Murray Butler and "The International Mind" as a Pathway to Peace.- 4. Progressivism Triumphant? Isaiah Bowman's New Diplomacy in a New World.- 5. Leo Pasvolsky and an Open World Economy.- 6. John Dewey: A Pragmatist's Search for Peace in the Aftermath of Total War.- 7. The "Newer Ideals" of Jane Addams's Progressivism.- 8. James T. Shotwell and the Organization of Peace.- 9. Harold Lasswell and the Social Study of Personal Insecurity.- 10. The Niebuhr Brothers' Debate and the Ethics of Just War vs. Pacifism: Progressivism and the Social Gospel.- 11. Beyond Hemispherism:  Charles Beard's Vision of World Order.- 12. A Lapsed Progressive: Walter Lippmann and US Foreign Policy, 1914-1945.- 13. Hans Morgenthau's Pilgrimage Among the Engineers.