American Imperialism Anti Imperialism

Across the course of American history, imperialism and anti-imperialism have been awkwardly paired as influences on the politics, culture, and diplomacy of the United States. The Declaration of Independence, after all, is an anti-imperial document, cataloguing the sins of the metropolitan government against the colonies. With the Revolution, and again in 1812, the nation stood against the most powerful empire in the world and declared itself independent. As noted by Ian Tyrrell and Jay Sexton, however, American "anti-imperialism was clearly selective, geographically, racially, and constitutionally." Empire’s Twin broadens our conception of anti-imperialist actors, ideas, and actions; it charts this story across the range of American history, from the Revolution to our own era; and it opens up the transnational and global dimensions of American anti-imperialism. By tracking the diverse manifestations of American anti-imperialism, this book highlights the different ways in which historians can approach it in their research and teaching. The contributors cover a wide range of subjects, including the discourse of anti-imperialism in the Early Republic and Civil War, anti-imperialist actions in the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution, the anti-imperial dimensions of early U.S. encounters in the Middle East, and the transnational nature of anti-imperialist public sentiment during the Cold War and beyond.

In the final tumultuous years of the nineteenth century the American government abandoned its traditional role in the field of foreign affairs when it adopted a policy of imperial expansion. This drastic change created a lengthy and fascinating, if divisive, national debate between the imperialists and anti-imperialists—with charges and counter­charges, presentations and rebuttals filling the pages of the nation's journals and echoing in the halls of Congress and councils of state. This book, which emphasizes the anti-imperialist position, spans the period between the beginning of the debate in 1890 and the demise of the Anti-Imperialist League in 1920. It examines in a basically chronological context the interesting issues, events, ideas, and organizations that were a part of American anti-imperialism, and stresses the thought of the leading anti-imperialists in relation to changing incidents and circumstances. It is based on a wide range of materials and unexploited sources of the period and provides the first comprehensive treatment of the subject. The text, as well as contemporary editorial cartoons, conveys a vivid sense of the spirit and drama of the times. The opponents of imperialism insisted it would yield grave economic, social, military, constitutional, ethical, and other problems, and that it constituted an inherent negation of the finest facets of our governmental heritage. They pointed out that the United States had always stood as the champion of liberty, democracy, equality, and self-government, and that imperialism denied these basic tenets. The anti-imperialists' memorable struggle was long and frustrating, but eventually successful. Although the author concentrates upon the exciting events and ideas of the period in question, the reader will note at many points intriguing parallels with various aspects of contemporary foreign affairs and the reaction to them.

"Seymour's obsessively researched, impressive first book holds its place as the most authoritative historical analysis of its kind."—Resurgence All empires spin self-serving myths, and in the United States the most potent of these is that America is a force for democracy around the world. Yet there is a tradition of American anti-imperialism which gives the lie to this mythology. Richard Seymour examines this complex relationship from the Revolution to the present-day. Richard Seymour is a socialist writer and runs the blog Lenin's Tomb. He is the author of The Liberal Defense of Murder. His articles have appeared in the Guardian and New Statesman.

From Mark Twain to the movement against the war in Vietnam, this is the story of ordinary Americans challenging empire.

In this major work, Lewis S. Feuer examines critical distinctions between progressive and regressive imperialism. He explores causes of anti-imperial ideologies, noting that unlike the spoliation that took place under regressive tartar, Spanish and Nazi colonizations, civilization flourished during the progressive imperialism of Hellenic, Macedonian, Roman, and modern British eras of empire-building. Feuer holds that it is erroneous to blame the relative backwardness of colonial peoples on the imperialism of Western democratic nations. In case after case, the character of colonial rulers determined economic development and democratic reform alike. Pursuing the theme of progress versus regression, Feuer compares the imperialism of the United States with that of the Soviet Union – to the detriment of the latter in nearly every instance. His effort constitutes nothing short of a fundamentally new perspective on the lessons of modern history and the mistakes of modern analysts of international affairs. Feuer opens as well a new chapter in political psychology with his study of such anti-imperialist intellectuals as Hobson, Morel, and Leonard Woolf; his portrait of Emin Pasha, the heroic Jewish governor of Equatorial Sudan, suggests a living model for Conrad's Lord Jim.