Reflections on American foreign policy since 1945

by Christopher Coker

From Library Journal In this literate essay, Coker (London School of Economics) probes the messianic impulses in American political culture and the way he believes they have been expressed in both isolationist and interventionist phases of 20th-century U.S. foreign policy. While citing the often distorted view of the world caused by America's own self-perceptions, Coker ends by exhorting the United States to remain committed to its perceived special place in history. At bottom here is the European dread of a demoralized America unable or unwilling to pull Europe's chestnuts out of the fire. Predictably, the author denounces prophecies of doom like Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of Great Powers ( LJ 12/87) . Informed laypersons should find this alternative view most engrossing.- Robert Decker, Harriman Inst., ColumbiaCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product Description Coker's theme is how Americans have relied on myth and imagery to create for themselves a past, an identity and a political culture from which their foreign policy springs. Events occur which challenge these myths and threaten to undermine the nation's self-confidence in world affairs.

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