Undoing the Liberal World Order (Paperback)

Leon Fink

ISBN 10: 0231202253 / ISBN 13: 9780231202251

Published by Columbia University Press, New York, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. In the decades following World War II, American liberals had a vision for the world. Their ambitions would not stop at the water's edge: progressive internationalism, they believed, could help peoples everywhere achieve democracy, prosperity, and freedom. Chastened in part by the failures of these grand aspirations, in recent years liberals and the Left have retreated from such idealism. Today, as a beleaguered United States confronts a series of crises, does the postwar liberal tradition offer any useful lessons for American engagement with the world?The historian Leon Fink examines key cases of progressive influence on postwar U.S. foreign policy, tracing the tension between liberal aspirations and the political realities that stymie them. From the reconstruction of post-Nazi West Germany to the struggle against apartheid, he shows how American liberals joined global allies in pursuit of an expansive political, social, and economic vision. Even as liberal internationalism brought such successes to the world, it also stumbled against domestic politics or was blind to the contradictions in capitalist development and the power of competing nationalist identities. A diplomatic history that emphasizes the roles of social class, labor movements, race, and grassroots activism, Undoing the Liberal World Order suggests new directions for a progressive American foreign policy. Leon Fink examines key cases of progressive influence on postwar U.S. foreign policy, tracing the tension between liberal aspirations and the political realities that stymie them. A diplomatic history that emphasizes the roles of class, labor, race, and grassroots activism, this book suggests new directions for progressive foreign policy. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780231202251

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Undoing the Liberal World Order (Paperback)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231202253
• ISBN 13: 9780231202251
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In the decades following World War II, American liberals had a vision for the world. Their ambitions would not stop at the water’s edge: progressive internationalism, they believed, could help peoples everywhere achieve democracy, prosperity, and freedom. Chastened in part by the failures of these grand aspirations, in recent years liberals and the Left have retreated from such idealism. Today, as a beleaguered United States confronts a series of crises, does the postwar liberal tradition offer any useful lessons for American engagement with the world?

The historian Leon Fink examines key cases of progressive influence on postwar U.S. foreign policy, tracing the tension between liberal aspirations and the political realities that stymie them. From the reconstruction of post-Nazi West Germany to the struggle against apartheid, he shows how American liberals joined global allies in pursuit of an expansive political, social, and economic vision. Even as liberal internationalism brought such successes to the world, it also stumbled against domestic politics or was blind to the contradictions in capitalist development and the power of competing nationalist identities. A diplomatic history that emphasizes the roles of social class, labor movements, race, and grassroots activism, Undoing the Liberal World Order suggests new directions for a progressive American foreign policy.

About the Author

Leon Fink is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the editor of Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas, the preeminent journal for labor historians. He is the author or editor of a dozen university press books, including, most recently, Labor Justice Across the Americas (Duke, 2017); The Long Gilded Age: American Capitalism and the Promise of a New World Order (Penn, 2015); and Sweatshops at Sea: Merchant Seamen in the World's First Globalized Industry, from 1812 to the Present (UNC, 2011). He has written for the Chicago Tribune, The Nation, Dissent, Salon.com, The Daily Beast, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Senior Scholar, and NEH Fellow.