Charles Austin Beard : The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism

Richard Drake presents a new interpretation of Charles Austin Beard's life and work. The foremost American historian and a leading public intellectual in the first half of the twentieth century, Beard participated actively in the debates about American politics and foreign policy surrounding the two world wars. Drake takes this famous man's life and rewrites his intellectual biography by placing the European dimension of Beard's thought at the center. This radical change of critical focus allows Drake to correct previous biographers' oversights and, in Charles Austin Beard , present a far more nuanced appreciation for Beard's life than we have read before. Drake proposes a restoration of Beard's professional reputation, which he lost in large part because of his extremely unpopular opposition to America's intervention in World War II. Drake analyzes the stages of Beard's development as a historian and critic: his role as an intellectual leader in the Progressive movement, the support that he gave to the cause of American intervention in World War I, and his subsequent revisionist repudiation of Wilsonian ideals and embrace of non-interventionism in the lead-up to World War II. Many of his dire predictions about the inevitable consequences of pre-World War II American foreign policy have come to pass. Drake shows that, as Americans tally the ruinous costs—both financial and moral—of nation-building and informal empire, the life and work of this prophet of history merit a thorough reexamination. Richard Drake presents a new interpretation of Charles Austin Beard's life and work. The foremost American historian and a leading public intellectual in the first half of the twentieth century, Beard participated actively in the debates about American politics and foreign policy surrounding the two world wars. In a radical change of critical focus, Charles Austin Beard places the European dimension of Beard's thought at the center, correcting previous biographers' oversights and presenting a far more nuanced appreciation for Beard's life. Drake analyzes the stages of Beard's development as a historian and critic: his role as an intellectual leader in the Progressive movement, the support that he gave to the cause of American intervention in World War I, and his subsequent revisionist repudiation of Wilsonian ideals and embrace of non-interventionism in the lead-up to World War II. Charles Austin Beard shows that, as Americans tally the ruinous costs—both financial and moral—of nation-building and informal empire, the life and work of this prophet of history merit a thorough reexamination. Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: The Beardian Interpretation of American History 1. Discovering the Economic Taproot of Imperialism 2. Two Contrasting Progressive Views of the Great War 3. Becoming a Revisionist 4. Washington and Wall Street Working Together for War 5. Isolationism versus Internationalism 6. A Wartime Trilogy 7. Waging War for the Four Freedoms 8. Beard Finds an Ally in Herbert Hoover 9. Attacking “the Saint” 10. Defending Beard after the Fall 11. Beard’s Philosophy of History and American Imperialism Conclusion: The Sad Historian of the Pensive Plain Notes Index "In the face of the ruinous costs of empire, about which Charles Austin Beard warned at the time of the Second World War, the life and work of this American prophet merit reexamination today"-- Provided by publisher