Seeking world order : f sgn the United States and international organization to 1920

This is an account of more than a century of effort in the United States to achieve an international organization. It begins with a brief introduction to earliest European plans for world co-operation and ends with the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles in the Senate on March 19, 1920. Departing from the usual historical concern with the heated political debate over United States entry into the League of Nations, Professor Kuehl has focused on the role of American internationalists in bringing a radical utopian concept almost to the point of political reality early in this century. In great detail, the author has traced the work of the many devoted internationalists who wrote, lectured, organized, and lobbied for the creation of a world organization: pacifists, who opposed any use of force; sanctionists, who urged collective security or an international army to enforce the peace; legalists, who placed their confidence in a system based on international law; arbitrationists, who relied on the peaceful settlement of disputes; federationists, who saw the need for an elaborate system of government; generalists, who endorsed no specific program. Well before the outbreak of World War I, these diverse groups of internationalists had wooed and won the American public to their common cause. From his perspective, the author rejects the stereotype of Woodrow Wilson as a prophetic world statesman; Wilson is here viewed as an unyielding and uninformed leader who only lately embraced the cause of internationalism and who isolated himself equally from those who opposed and from those who had long supported and worked for the creation of a league of nations. Table of Contents One. An Idea Evolves Two. The Foundations of Modern International Organization Three. A Decade of Progress, 1890-1899 Four. The Modem Movement for an International Organization Five. The Road to the Second Hague Conference Six. Optimism and Education, 1907-1909 Seven. Aggressive Revival Eight. Years of Decline, 1913-1914 Nine. Reawakened Interest Ten. Divergent Views Eleven. An Idea Grows Twelve. The Stars in their Courses Thirteen. Hollow Victory Fourteen. Utopia or Hell Index