Instructor: John Moore
Office: 94-337, ex. 3585, E-mail <JAMoore2@CSUPomona.edu>
Office Hours: MW, 4-5p.m., TTH, 10-11:30a.m., and by appointment
This is a historical study of America's role in the world. The course emphasizes analyses of complex questions involving U.S. relations with other nations and peoples, requiring the student to investigate primary sources and conflicting historical points of view. Issues thus investigated span the whole of U.S. history but major concentration is on the 20th century.
Students completing the course should gain a broad grasp of America's role in the world, a greater appreciation of the processes involved in making foreign policy and conducting diplomacy, a deeper understanding of the events themselves, and a keen familiarity with the major primary and secondary sources for the history of U.S. Foreign Relations as well as the most influential interpretations of key events in that history.
Required Text: A specially compiled anthology of documents and readings on library reserve. Ask for Diplomatic History 414, instructor John Moore
Other Materials on Library Reserve:
Texts: Thomas Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People
S.F. Bemis, Diplomatic History of the U.S.
Alexander De Conde, A History of American Foreign Policy
Robert Ferrell, American Diplomacy
Walter LaFeber, The American Age
Richard Leopold, The Growth of American Diplomacy
T. Paterson, J. Clifford, K. Hagan, American Foreign Policy, 2 Vols.
J. Pratt, A History of U.S. Foreign Policy
The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, 4 Vols.(1993)
Additional Sources on Library Reserve:
Stephen Ambrose, Rise to Globalism (1994)
A.A. Ekirch, Ideas, Ideals, and American Diplomacy (1966)
N.A. Graebner, (ed.), Uncertain Tradition, Secretaries of State in the 20th Century (1961)
Great Decisions (published annually by the Foreign Policy Association)
Michael Hunt, Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy (1987)
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations (1996)
L.S. Kaplan (ed.), Recent American Foreign Policy
G. Kennan, American Diplomacy (1951)
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (1994)
W. LaFeber (ed.), Sources in American Diplomacy .
Walter McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State; The American Encounter with the World Since 1776 (1997)
Robert McNamara, In Retrospect (1995)
F.J. Merli and T.A. Wilson, Makers of American Diplomacy (1974)
T. Paterson (ed.), Major Problems in American Foreign Policy, 2 vols. (1995)
T. Paterson (ed.), The Origins of the Cold War (1991)
The Pentagon Papers (New York Times edition, 1971)
Ralph Shaffer, Toward Pearl Harbor (1991)
W.A. Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (1962)
Eugene R. Wittkopf (ed.), The Future of American Foreign Policy, 2nd ed.(1994)
On Library Reference: The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations (1997)
Students should also find useful the Foreign Relations Documents published by the Department of State. These muti-volume annual documents are in the Library under the call number: JX 233 A3. Also, students should be aware of and plan to make use of the quarterly journals Diplomatic History (published by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations) and Foreign Affairs (published by the Council on Foreign Relations).
Internet Resources
There are numerous aids available through the internet. Of particular usefulness for this course are the U.S. Diplomatic History Resources Index, URL: http://www-scf.usc.edu/"sarantak/stuff.html (which contains extensive bibliographies and links to archives and primary resources), and the Web site for the U.S. Department of State, URL: http://www.state.gov/index.html
Class meetings will begin with a 20 minute exam covering an assigned question. Your instructor will remind you of the question at least one class meeting in advance of the exam and will provide guidance for your study from the variety of material indicated above. Students should begin study for each question by reviewing the topic in one of the textbooks on Reserve, followed by a careful study of the specific documents and readings on the question in the specially compiled anthology on Reserve.
Each of these exams will be worth a possible 10 points, and at the end of the quarter, your instructor will discount the 2 or 3 lowest scores in determining the final grade. There will be no make-up exams. No notes, books, or essays may be used while taking these exams. Each question must be answered accurately and fully. The remainder of each class will be taken up with a discussion of the question for the day. Thus, class participation will constitute a significant proportion of the final grade. Excessive absences will prove very damaging to a student's grade.
A final exam will be given, the precise nature of which shall be determined at a later date.
Dates of specific questions:
Wed., Oct. 1 - Which was closer in meaning and spirit to the Farewell Address: the Monroe Doctrine or Manifest Destiny?
Mon., Oct. 6 - Why did the U.S. go to war with Spain in 1898, and when did war become inevitable?
Wed., Oct. 8 - Why did the U.S. annex the Philippines?
Mon., Oct. 13 - What happened to the Open Door Policy between 1899 and 1922; did it expand, decline, or remain the same?
Wed., Oct. 15 - What was U.S. policy toward Central America and the Caribbean (including Mexico) between 1900 and 1917, and how can you account for that policy?
Mon., Oct. 20 - Why did the U.S. enter World War I and when did that entrance become inevitable?
Wed., Oct. 22 - How much of a failure or success for U.S. policy was the Versailles Treaty?
Mon., Oct. 27 - Why did the U.S. intervene in the Russian Civil War?
Wed., Oct. 29 - How "isolationist," if at all, was the U.S. in the 1920s (1921-1933)?
Mon., Nov. 3 - Who was chiefly responsible for the "Good Neighbor Policy," F.D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, or someone else?
Wed., Nov. 5 - Who and or what chiefly caused the U.S. to go to war in 1941 and why did the U.S. go to war?
Mon., Nov. 10 - How much of a failure or success for U.S. diplomacy was the Yalta agreement?
Wed., Nov. 12 - Was the U.S. justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?
Mon., Nov. 17 - What country, person or event was chiefly responsible for causing the Cold War and when did it become inevitable?
Wed., Nov. 19 - What was U.S. policy with reference to Cuba from late 1958 through October, 1962 and how can you account for that policy?
Mon., Nov. 24 - How can you account for the initial and continued involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam?
Wed., Nov. 26 - What country, person, event, or policy was chiefly responsible for ending the Cold War, and when did the Cold War end?
Mon. Dec. 1 - Choose ONE of the following: a) Should the U.S. encourage or oppose the expansion of NATO? b) Should the U.S. deny Most Favored Nation status to China?
Wed., Dec. 3 - What have been and will be the consequences of the end of the Cold War for U.S. foreign policy?
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