Grad Review: W. A. William's "Tragedy of American Diplomacy"

5-minute review of W.A. Williams's "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy." Citation: Williams, William Appleman. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, 50th anniversary ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2009 (originally published 1959).
(Recorded with screencast-o-ma...)

[@AnthonyJohnson-ct1yg]

Interesting thesis. Essentially, economic self interest is the determiner of policy/action. Certainly not in style in current academic historiography, but it is worth considering. I don’t think Williams, or the Wisconsin School for that matter, were far off the mark. Access to resources and markets help define security. For myself, it appears Economic goals will determine the action, and geography will then determine the outcome..

[@kalebnbrown]

Great job!

[@Covertops2049]

The Open Door led to a needless war against Japan.

[@dougowen9873]

I read this book in addition to The Contours of American History while I was doing grad work in U.S. History in the 1970's. Of course, at that time in the aftermath of the Viet Nam war Williams was the undisputed intellectual darling of the far left's perception of why everything wrong in the world was pretty much the fault of the U.S. The ironic part of Williams scathing criticism of American foreign policy as 'imperialistic, expansionist, and driven by capitalist economic interests was that after some reflection on his critique many of us who stopped drinking the communist kool aid and reflected for even a moment on the results of that criticism concluded that the logical reaction to his thesis was a big "so what"? Imperilistic capitalism is not necessarily a bad thing if it produces a good result, evidence the booming economies of southeast Asia etc. Take a look at Niall Fergusons book "" for an analysis using that thesis.

[@kalebnbrown]

It produces great results from those that benefit the most. And, not so great for those people that remain mired in poverty and with very limited control over their governments.

[@dougowen9873]

@@kalebnbrown The phrase "mired in poverty" is a non starter for me. I have known many many Americans who work their up and refuse to be "mired".

[@charliebarton]

Well, it all worked out great if we ignore the millions of dead, yes. But also, Vietnam is still a communist country as is China - yes, it's state capitalism, but it seems extremely ironic that folks like Ferguson argue that China proves capitalism works, when the capitalism of China includes so much state direction and intervention. Also, I mean, imagine if our corporations had sent their manufacturing to Latin America instead of China. Less profits, but far less of a crisis on the border. But, gotta get those dividend payments, right?