Warren I. Cohen

The American Revisionists

a history of Sino-American relations

America's response to China

Belief in the United States as a force for good in the world runs deep. Yet an honest consideration reveals a history marred by great crimes and ordinary errors, alongside many achievements and triumphs. In this comprehensive account of American foreign relations from the nation’s founding through the present day, the diplomatic historian Warren I. Cohen calls attention to the uses—and abuses—of U.S. international leadership and the noble as well as the exploitative ends that American power has wrought. In A Nation Like All Others, Cohen offers a brisk, argumentative history that confronts the concept of American exceptionalism and decries the lack of moral imagination in American foreign policy. He begins with the foreign policy of colonial and postrevolutionary America, exploring interactions with European powers and Native Americans and the implications of slavery and westward expansion. He then traces the rise of American empire; the nation’s choices leading up to and in the wake of the First World War; and World War II and renewed military involvement in foreign affairs. Cohen provides a long history of the Cold War, from its roots under Truman through the Korean and Vietnam Wars to the transformation of the international system under Reagan and Gorbachev. Finally, he surveys America’s recent history in the Middle East, with particular attention to the mismanagement of the War on Terror and Abu Ghraib. Written with great depth of knowledge and moral clarity, A Nation Like All Others suggests that an unflinching look at the nation’s past is America’s best option to shape a better future.

A Brief History of American Foreign Relations

A Nation Like All Others

A common misconception holds that Marco Polo "opened up" a closed and recalcitrant "Orient" to the West. However, this sweeping history covering 4,000 years of international relations from the perspective of China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia shows that the region's extensive involvement in world affairs began thousands of years ago. In a time when the writing of history is increasingly specialized, Warren I. Cohen has made a bold move against the grain. In broad but revealing brushstrokes, he paints a huge canvas of East Asia's place in world affairs throughout four millennia. Just as Cohen thinks broadly across time, so too, he defines the boundaries of East Asia liberally, looking beyond China, Japan, and Korea to include Southeast Asia. In addition, Cohen stretches the scope of international relations beyond its usual limitations to consider the vital role of cultural and economic exchanges. Within this vast framework, Cohen explores the system of Chinese domination in the ancient world, the exchanges between East Asia and the Islamic world from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and the emergence of a European-defined international system in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book covers the new imperialism of the 1890s, the Manchurian crisis of the early 1930s, the ascendancy of Japan, the trials of World War II, the drama of the Cold War, and the fleeting "Asian Century" from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. East Asia at the Center is replete with often-overlooked or little-known facts, such as: A record of persistent Chinese imperialism in the region Tibet's status as a major power from the 7th to the 9th centuries C.E., when it frequently invaded China and decimated Chinese armies Japan's profound dependence on Korea for its early cultural development The enormous influence of Indian cuisine on that of China Egyptian and Ottoman military aid to their Muslim brethren in India and Sumatra against European powers Extensive Chinese sea voyages to Arabia and East Africa—long before such famous Westerners as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus took to the seas East Asia at the Center's expansive historical view puts the trials and advances of the past four millennia into perspective, showing that East Asia has often been preeminent on the world stage—and conjecturing that it might be so again in the not-so-distant future.

Four Thousand Years of Engagement with the World

East Asia at the Center

This sharp and authoritative account of American foreign relations analyzes the last fifteen years of foreign policy in relation to the last forty years, since the end of the Cold War. Provides an overview and understanding of the recent history of U.S. foreign relations from the viewpoint of one of the most respected authorities in the field Includes suggestions for further reading.

U.S. Foreign Relations Since the Cold War

America's Failing Empire

Distinguished University Professor of History Warren I Cohen

A scintillating new study of the Asian-American contribution to the American story traces the influence of Asian culture on food, film, music, medicine, and religion in the twenty-first century.

The Asian American Century

Walter LaFeber

Akira Iriye

Bradford Perkins

The American Search for Opportunity traces the U.S. foreign policy between 1865 and 1913, linking these two historic trends by noting how the United States.

The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: Volume 2, The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913

Cohen charts the course of cultural, intellectual, economic, and political developments in East Asia -- particularly China and Japan -- from the beginning of recorded time to the present day and examines such events as the rise and fall of key dynasties, the ascendance of the British empire, and the development of democracy in Asia.

This compelling book tells the inspirational stories of men and women who fought for peace, freedom, equality, and human rights throughout the twentieth century. These courageous individuals include leading figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Václav Havel, and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Nobel Prize winners Aung San Suu Kyi, Andrei Sakharov, and Muhammad Yunus. Readers will be reminded why Pope John XXIII, long overshadowed by the charismatic John Paul II, was the greatest pope of contemporary times. A new generation will learn that Margaret Sanger was responsible for the single most important advance toward the liberation of women worldwide. They will also come to know some of the valiant women who fought at great personal risk for equal rights in Muslim communities. Cohen highlights the vital roles of Bram Fischer, Helen Suzman, and Donald Woods in fighting apartheid in South Africa and of Jack Greenberg in the struggle against Jim Crow in America. He traces Liu Binyan's efforts to win freedom of the press and to end the abuse of power by the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, he recounts the remarkable stories of some of the thousands of men and women of many nationalities and walks of life who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Together, these biographies paint an unforgettable portrait of the famous and unsung people who stepped forward with the moral vision to intervene, often at great personal cost, to alleviate human misery.

The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and Human Rights

Profiles in Humanity

Warren I. Cohen begins with the mercantile interests of the newly independent American colonies and follows through to the Tianenmen Square massacre and the policy of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Warren I. Cohen

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