عادت‌های امپراتوری: تاریخ گسترش آمریکایی

Discussions abound today about the state of the union, its place in the world, and the founding fathers’ intentions. Did they want the United States to become a republic or an empire? Thomas Jefferson, after all, called the young nation an “empire for liberty.” Later words through two centuries all evoked empire: “manifest destiny” in the 1840s, “benevolent assimilation” in 1898, and “our responsibility to lead” in 2002. Indeed, since Jefferson’s day, Americans have proudly proclaimed liberty and cherished democracy even as they have often behaved imperially. Habits of Empire documents this expansionist behavior by examining each of the nation’s territorial acquisitions since the first in 1782—how the land was acquired, how its previous occupants were removed or reduced, and how it was then settled and stabilized. By 1853, when the continental United States was fully established from sea to shining sea, the nation’s habit of empire-building had become firmly formed. Each of the acquisitions is a story in itself. In Paris in 1782, the American negotiators—the crafty Benjamin Franklin, the crabby John Adams, and the crooked John Jay—stubbornly and with much luck pushed the new country’s western boundary to the Mississippi River and almost gained southern Canada as well. Hardly any Americans yet lived west of the Appalachians, and their armies had not conquered the region, but they won it nevertheless. That allowed Robert Livingston and James Monroe in 1803 to accept Napoleon’s astonishing offer to sell all of Louisiana. Through a volatile mix of leadership, luck, aggression, chicanery, rampant population growth, and self-confident ideology came the further acquisitions of Florida, Texas, Oregon, and the Southwest. From the 1850s through the 1920s, America’s empire-building reached across the Pacific (from Alaska through Hawaii and Samoa to the Philippines) and around the Caribbean (from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and several “protectorates” to the Panama Canal and the Virgin Islands). After 1945, American expansion took a new global form, military and economic, and built on the need to contain the Soviet Union in the Cold War. After 2001 and the start of the “war on terror, ” it became both defensive and assertive. Acclaimed historian Walter Nugent shows how the United States, asserting republican virtue but employing imperial force, has long lived with the contradiction inherent in Jefferson’s famous phrase “empire for liberty.” Enlightening, empathetic, comprehensive, and well-sourced, this book explains the deep roots of America’s imperialism as no other has done. Since its founding, the United States'declared principles of liberty and democracy have often clashed with aggressive policies of imperial expansion. In this sweeping narrative history, acclaimed scholar Walter Nugent explores this fundamental American contradiction by recounting the story of American land acquisition since 1782 and shows how this steady addition of territory instilled in the American people a habit of empire-building. From America's early expansions into Transappalachia and the Louisiana Purchase through later additions of Alaska and island protectorates in the Caribbean and Pacific, Nugent demonstrates that the history of American empire is a tale of shifting motives, as the early desire to annex land for a growing population gave way to securing strategic outposts for America's global economic and military interests. Thorough, enlightening, and well-sourced, this book explains the deep roots of American imperialism as no other has done. Contents Foreword Chapter One. Transappalachia, 1782: First Land, First Good Fortune Chapter Two. Louisiana, 1803: Second Good Luck Chapter Three. Canada, 1812-1814: Failed Aggression Northward Chapter Four. Florida, 1810-1819: Southward Aggression I Chapter Five. Texas, 1811-1845: Overpopulating and Conquering Chapter Six. Oregon, 1818-1846: Fixing the Canadian Border Chapter Seven. California and New Mexico, 1846-1848: Southward Aggression II Chapter Eight. Populating the Empire Chapter Nine. To Alaska and Across the Pacific Chapter Ten. Around the Caribbean Postscript: The Global Empire Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index Transappalachia, 1782 : First Land, First Good Fortune -- Louisiana, 1803 : Second Good Luck -- Canada, 1812-1814 : Failed Aggression Northward -- Florida, 1810-1819 : Southward Aggression I -- Texas, 1811-1845 : Overpopulating And Conquering -- Oregon, 1818-1846 : Fixing The Canadian Border -- California And New Mexico, 1846-1848 : Southward Aggression Ii -- Populating The Empire -- To Alaska And Across The Pacific -- Around The Caribbean -- Postscript: The Global Empire. Walter Nugent. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [353]-370) And Index. A history of American expansionism chronicles the country's accumulation of territory and global intervention from the Revolutionary War to the present day, examining the tension between the U.S. acting as both a republic and an empire