From World War to Postwar: Revolution, Cold War, Decolonization, and the Rise of American Hegemony, 1943-1958 (New Approaches to International History)

Offering a global account of the 'long' World War II, this book challenges conventional narratives that picture a clearly defined war period (1939-1945) followed by a distinct postwar era dominated by the encroaching cold war. Arguing instead that while some aspects of the war did end abruptly in 1945, in many corners of the world 'war' bled directly and raggedly into the 'postwar' such as Allied Occupation in Italy, the civil war in Greece, the rise of US hegemony and struggles for national liberation in India. From World War to Cold War shows how critical developments in the latter half of the 20th century were a direct result of the Second World War, and reconceptualizes the conflict as an intersecting series of regional wars as well as an overarching world war. Offering new ways to think about how 'the war' shaped the second half of the 20th century, this book reaches into those regions often overlooked in the study of WWII. Showing how wartime relations between the US and Latin America played a crucial role in the worldwide development of US hegemony, how WWII accelerated the retreat from Empire in Sub-Saharan Africa and how it encouraged the growth of anti-colonialism in regions around the world, Buchanan offers a truly global account of the outcomes of the largest conflict in human history, and challenges the temporal boundaries in which we view it. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction A Note on Text and Terminology For Further Reading 1 The United States at the Dawn of the “American Century” The Scale and Scope of America’s Military Victory Global Networks of Predominance and Connectivity Shaping the Postwar World: Regimes of Military Government The United States and the World War Planning for Hegemony America’s Wartime Economy The United States Reorganizes the World Economy Washington Structures Its Political Hegemony The Apex of American Power For Further Reading 2 Hegemony Qualified: The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the Deepening Cold War The Wartime Devastation of Eastern Europe and Moscow’s Plans for the Postwar The Russian Revolution and the Rise of Stalinism Truman, Trieste, and the Shaping of US Policy Eastern Europe in the Immediate Postwar Germany: The Central Question Washington Steps Up the Pressure 3 Hegemony Qualified: The Chinese Revolution and the War in Korea The Great American Mutiny China in 1945 China in American and Soviet planning The Chinese Revolution The CCP Consolidates Control War in Korea The War in Korea and the Transformation in China For Further Reading 4 Hegemony Qualified: Anti-Colonial Revolt in South and Southeast Asia Japan’s Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Wars of Indonesian Independence, 1945–50 Popular Revolt and Postwar Crisis in Southeast Asia The Bloody End of British India New Nation-States and Alternative Solidarities: The 1955 Bandung Conference Communism in South and Southeast Asia Organizing American Hegemony in South and Southeast Asia For Further Reading 5 Hegemony Transferred and Hierarchy Reorganized: Western Europe, Japan, and the British Dominions War, Revolution, and Political Restabilization in Italy Democracy, Disarmament, and the Restoration of Political Equilibrium Variations on a Theme: Postwar Political Stabilization Japan, France, and Belgium The Key to Europe: Partition and Political Stabilization in Germany The Greek Civil War The Second Phase of Postwar Stabilization, 1947–50 Washington’s Remilitarization Drive Britain: Relative Decline and Hegemonic Transition The ‘Dedominionization’ of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand Organizing the Postwar World For Further Reading 6 Hegemony Expanded: The Middle East and Africa War and the Crisis of Colonial Rule in North Africa and the Middle East Revolutionary Crises in Postwar Iran, 1945–53 Oil, the Cold War, and the United States in the Middle East The Partition of Palestine The ‘Tripartite Aggression’ or Suez Crisis, 1956 War and Postwar in Sub-Saharan Africa The ‘Second Colonial Conquest’: Planning for Postwar Empire Cold War Contexts: Washington Underwrites Colonial Empire Roads to Decolonization Shifts in American Policy toward Africa South Africa: Anchor of Imperial Power For Further Reading 7 Hemispheric Bedrock: Latin America and the Caribbean The 1946 Haitian Revolt Good Neighbors Washington’s Wartime Relations with Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina The Consolidation of Washington’s Regional Hegemony, 1944–48 A Latin American Front in the Postwar Labor Insurgency Populism, Communism, and the United States The Window of Democracy Closes From Development and Modernization to Intensified Neocolonialism The Caribbean Colonies The Cuban Revolution For Further Reading 8 Bringing It All Back Home An American Front in the Postwar Labor Upsurge The Deepening Cold War, Loyalty Oaths, and the Defeat of the Progressive Party The Chinese Revolution and the Rise of McCarthyism The National Security State and the Imperial Presidency Eisenhower and the ‘Middle Way’ Innovation, Modernization, and the Cold War University High Art and Soft Power The Civil Rights Movement—A Second American Front in the Postwar Upsurge Constructing the Good War For Further Reading From World War to Postwar: Some Conclusions Index