John Foster Dulles: apostle of American Empire /
"In this intellectual biography of John Foster Dulles, Bevan Sewell seeks to restore Dulles as an important figure in US international history. In so doing, Sewall has three main aims: first, to argue that Dulles must be understood as a product and shaper of the United States' imperial his...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Baltimore, Maryland :
Johns Hopkins University Press,
2026.
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| Summary: | "In this intellectual biography of John Foster Dulles, Bevan Sewell seeks to restore Dulles as an important figure in US international history. In so doing, Sewall has three main aims: first, to argue that Dulles must be understood as a product and shaper of the United States' imperial history and ambitions; second, to understand Dulles' lifelong commitment to pragmatism (which serves to explain the intellectual inconsistencies in Dulles' life and career); and third, to emphasize how his understanding of transnational forces (including communism, nationalism, religion, and imperialism) shaped his evolving worldview"-- Provided by publisher. "A compelling biography of John Foster Dulles, one of the most complex and underexamined architects of US foreign policy. John Foster Dulles is a towering yet misunderstood figure in American and international history. Best known as secretary of state under Dwight D. Eisenhower and as the namesake for the Dulles airport, he has long been cast as a Cold War hardliner-moralizing, rigid, and ready to meet Soviet threats with nuclear force. Yet this view, while enduring, leaves much of his intellectual legacy unexplored. In John Foster Dulles, Bevan Sewell presents a compelling intellectual biography that restores Dulles as a central architect of the American-led world order in the twentieth century. Across a remarkable career that spanned the Versailles Peace Conference, landmark legal work on international finance, leadership in Christian ecumenical movements, and his role as one of the first US representatives to the nascent United Nations, Dulles consistently sought to shape a global system anchored by American values in a transnational context . His was a vision of peace not as passive coexistence but as a dynamic, evolving framework of moral, economic, and political order from a transatlantic perspective. Far from the caricature of an inflexible ideologue, Dulles emerges as a thinker attuned to the complexities of change. His philosophical pragmatism, informed by religious conviction and transnational experience, guided a lifelong search for durable solutions to global conflict-even as it exposed glaring contradictions in his policies. Dulles's work was rooted in empire, inspired by a belief in American exceptionalism, and constrained by the biases of his time. Based on wide-ranging research and a sharp reassessment of Dulles's intellectual development, John Foster Dulles reframes his legacy for a new generation and offers a substantial new interpretation of his influence on US foreign relations in the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | xiv, 405 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781421454016 1421454017 |