Promised land, crusader state
Subtitle: the American encounter with the world since 1776
By: Walter A. McDougall.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: United States -- Foreign relations.
Description: Taking up the torch of George Kennan, Pulitzer Prize winner Walter McDougall proposes nothing less than to cleanse the vocabulary of our post-Cold War debate on America's place in world affairs.

Looking back over two centuries, he draws a striking contrast between America as a Promised Land, a vision inspired by the "Old Testament" of our diplomatic wisdom through the nineteenth century, and the contrary vision of America as a Crusader State, which inspired the "New Testament" of our foreign policy beginning at the time of the Spanish-American War and reaching its fulfillment in Vietnam.

To this day, these two visions and these two testaments battle for control of the way America sees its role in the world.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-273) and index.