Walter F. LaFeber

This book explains the history of US/Central American relations, explaining why these countries have remained so overpopulated, illiterate and violent; and why US government notions of economic and military security combine to keep in place a system of Central American dependency. This second edition is updated to include new material covering the Reagan and Bush years, and the Iran/Contra affair.

Using extensive materials from both published and private sources, this concise text focuses on United States-Soviet diplomacy to explain the causes and consequences of the Cold War. It explores how the Cold War was shaped by domestic events in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union and presents a variety of other points of view on the conflict--Chinese, Latin American, European, and Vietnamese. The text includes both engaging anecdotes and quotes from primary sources to support key points and exemplify policies, and recent scholarship and materials from openings of the U.S., Soviet, and Chinese archives.

Walter LaFeber's timely analysis looks at the ways that triumphant capitalism, coupled with high-tech telecommunications, is conquering the nations of the world, one mind―one pair of feet―at a time. With Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism , Walter LaFeber has written a biography, a social history, and a far-ranging economic critique. From basketball prodigy to international phenomenon to seductive commercial ideal, Michael Jordan is the supreme example of how American corporations have used technology in a brave, massively wired new world to sell their products in every corner of the globe. LaFeber's examination of Nike and its particular dominion over the global marketplace is often scathing, while his fascinating mini-biography of Michael Jordan and the commercial history of basketball reveal much about American society. For this new paperback edition, LaFeber has added a chapter on globalization in a changed world, after mass protests and since September 11. "Bold, riveting....Brilliantly illuminates how hyper-US capitalism has spread its financial wings around the globe."―Douglas Brinkley "LaFeber brings an impressive intellect to bear on his subject."―Barbara Rudolph, Chicago Tribune

This classic work, by the distinguished historian Walter LaFeber, presents his widely influential argument that economic causes were the primary forces propelling America to world power in the nineteenth century. Cornell University Press is proud to issue this thirty-fifth anniversary edition, featuring a new preface by the author. "In this Beveridge Award-winning study, Walter LaFeber... probes beneath the apparently quiet surface of late nineteenth-century American diplomacy, undisturbed by major wars and undistinguished by important statements of policy. He finds those who shaped American diplomacy believed expanding foreign markets were the cure for recurring depressions.... In thoroughly documenting economic pressure on American foreign policy of the late nineteenth century, the author has illuminated a shadowy corner of the national experience.... The theory that America was thrust by events into a position of world power it never sought and was unprepared to discharge must now be re-examined. Also brought into question is the thesis that American policymakers have depended for direction on the uncertain compass of utopian idealism."―American Historical Review

Walter LaFeber brings a full range of historical tools to bear on American Diplomatic history--biographical sketches, a concise survey of world events that shaped U.S. policy, a use of American social and cultural history, and a full discussion of the rise of presidential power. Photos and maps.

Winner of the Bancroft Prize.One of America's leading historians tells the entire story behind the disagreements, tensions, and skirmishes between Japan--a compact, homogeneous, closely-knit society terrified of disorder--and America--a sprawling, open-ended society that fears economic depression and continually seeks an international marketplace. Photos.

The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913 analyzes the period between the American Civil War and World War I (1865-1913) as the formative basis for twentieth-century American world power--"The American Century" as it has become known--and examines the "Imperial Presidency" that these roots produced. The extent of U.S. power was so great that it not only transformed American society, but reshaped other societies around the globe as well, by helping fuel--and in some cases directly causing--the great revolutions of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in Mexico, Russia, China, Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, Panama, and Central America. The book, therefore, not only examines American history, but the history of many other areas that were dramatically affected by U.S. power as they entered the twentieth century.

Lyndon Johnson made a life or death bet during his Presidential term, and lost. Intent upon fighting an extended war against a determined foe, he gambled that American society could also endure a vast array of domestic reforms. The result was the turmoil of the 1968 presidential election—a crisis more severe than any since the Civil War. With thousands killed in Vietnam, hundreds dead in civil rights riots, televised chaos at the Democratic National Convention, and two major assassinations, Americans responded by voting for the law and order message of Richard Nixon.In The Deadly Bet, distinguished historian Walter LaFeber explores the turbulent election of 1968 and its significance in the larger context of American history. Looking through the eyes of the year's most important players—including Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, Nguyen Van Thieu, and Lyndon Johnson—LaFeber argues that the domestic upheaval had more impact on the election than the war in Vietnam.Clear, concise, and engaging, this work sheds important light on the crucial year of 1968.

THE AMERICAN CENTURY is a succinct, well-written history of the United States in the modern (post-1890�s) era. It is valuable for either the second half of U.S. survey courses or for 20th Century U.S. courses for upperclass students. The text places special emphasis on economic and urban growth, social and political change, civil rights and liberties, and the growth of the U.S. into a global superpower. The specialization of each author contributes to an unusually strong balance of coverage. The authors handle both domestic and foreign policy issues and demonstrate the ways in which domestic and foreign policies are linked.

This newly updated edition of Walter LaFeber's widely praised study of the evolution of U.S.-Panama relations contains two new chapters on the events that have occurred since the Panama Canal Treaty in 1978.This new edition offers particularly detailed examinations of the 1988 attempt to oust Manuel Noriega and Noriega's role in aiding the Nicaraguan Contras, as well as invaluable background information for understanding the 1989 crises. LaFeber argues that the interdependent, but turbulent,relationship between Panama and the United States continued into the 1980s with the U.S. using General Manuel Antonio Noriega to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. U.S. officials in the Reagan administration also subordinated widespread knowledge of Noriega's drug trafficking in orderto keep Panama in line with the U.S. policy towards Nicaragua. But by 1986, the United States both knew and demanded too much of Noriega, and the relationship finally began to fragment. LaFeber's updated volume remains the essential source for anyone who wants a complete picture of U.S.-Panamarelations from Balboa to the present.

"The American Century" is a succinct, well-written history of the United States in the modern (post-1890's) era. It is valuable for either the second half of U.S. survey courses or for 20th Century U.S. courses for upper class students. The text places special emphasis on economic and urban growth, social and political change, civil rights and liberties, and the growth of the U.S. into a global superpower. The specialization of each author contributes to an unusually strong balance of coverage. The authors handle both domestic and foreign policy issues and demonstrate the ways in which domestic and foreign policies are linked.

s/t: Twenty years of revolutions and response, 1947-1967

The study and teaching of history unexpectedly emerged as the subject of intense public debate.

This book focuses on the U.S. foreign and domestic policies, at points noting how the two are necessarily related. It includes brief analyses of developments elsewhere in the world to help students understand the foreign policy.

LaFeber examines the Kissinger response and the Carter response to ""The Third Cold War.""