Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy
At last, a careful and illuminating analysis of Truman's debt to and improvement on the internationalist foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson. Grounded in a respect for American principles, faithful to the historical record, and open to the possibility that Wilson and Truman have something important to teach us, Pierce's book is a model of responsible scholarship. A remarkable achievement."--Bradford Wilson, James Madison Program for the Study of American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University"This is a good book."--Political Science Quarterly"This richly detailed study of Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman is much more than a comparison of the foreign policies of the two presidents. It is, as well, a sensitive exploration of the tensions between America's understanding of its unique mission in the world, and the effects of the power that has been used to sustain and project that mission. Anne Pierce enriches our understanding of the past, and at the same time shows how a careful balancing of the requirements of mission and power has relevance for the present."--Dorothy V. Jones, Scholar-in-Residence, The Newberry Library"Useful to those who would like to have more than a superficial understanding of the evolution of 20th century foreign affairs."--Akira Iriye, Harvard University"In a welcome relief from too many works on foreign policy, Anne Pierce'sWoodrow Wilson and Harry Trumanrejects the sort of reductionist view of political interpretation that sees foreign policy solely in terms of a single variable or a single dichotomy, economics or ideology, consensus versus change, liberal versus conservative, idealism versus realism. 'If we must use such categories,' she says, 'we must admit the following: At the end of his term, Truman was an idealist engaged in pragmatic geopolitics, a pragmatist determined to uphold and perpetuate Wilsonian ideals and a political liberal bent on conserving the best in American political traditions and American political thought.' Her analysis of the formative periods of 20th-century American foreign policy, the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman, is actually a bit broader than the subtitle of her work,Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy,would suggest. By 'mission' she means the principles that have animated American politics since the founding: by 'power' she means the policies pursued by presidents Wilson and Truman in pursuit of those principles in the context of their time. How these two ideas are intertwined is the heart of her well-reasoned and tightly argued work.--Claremont Review"The historical legacy of Woodrow Wilson has been the subject of considerable controversy. In this stimulating new work of historical interpretation, Anne Pierce shows convincingly that Wilsonian principles were an essential ingredient of America's Cold War foreign policy. It can never be said with certainty that Wilson would have been a cold warrior had he lived, but, thanks to this book, it is now clear that his ideas were unmistakably present in the outlook of Harry Truman. . . . By arguing powerfully that the Cold War cannot be comprehended in terms of realism or idealism alone, Pierce significantly enlarges our understanding of the role of realism and idealism in 20th century U.S. foreign relations."--Frank Ninkovich, St. Johns University