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The Picky Eagle : How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U.S. Territorial Expansion / Richard W. Maass.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2021Description: 1 online resource (312 p.) : 1 map, 2 chartsContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501748769
  • 9781501748776
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 320.0973 23
LOC classification:
  • E179.5 .M124 2020
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1. The Limits of U.S. Territorial Expansion -- 2. Explaining Annexation -- 3. To the Continent: European Empires and U.S. Annexation -- 4. To the West: Native American Lands and U.S. Annexation -- 5. To the North: Canada and U.S. Annexation -- 6. To the South: Mexico and U.S. Annexation -- 7. To the Seas: Islands and U.S. Annexation -- 8. The International Implications of U.S. Annexation -- Notes -- Index
Summary: The Picky Eagle explains why the United States stopped annexing territory by focusing on annexation's domestic consequences, both political and normative. It describes how the US rejection of further annexations, despite its rising power, set the stage for twentieth-century efforts to outlaw conquest. In contrast to conventional accounts of a nineteenth-century shift from territorial expansion to commercial expansion, Richard Maass argues that US ambitions were selective from the start.His book is animated by twenty-three case studies, examining the decision-making of U.S. leaders facing opportunities to pursue annexation between 1775 and 1898. U.S. presidents, secretaries, and congressmen consistently worried about how absorbing new territories would affect their domestic political influence and their goals for their country. They were particularly sensitive to annexation's domestic costs where xenophobia interacted with their commitment to democracy: rather than grant political representation to a large alien population or subject it to a long-term imperial regime, they regularly avoided both of these perceived bad options by rejecting annexation. As a result, U.S. leaders often declined even profitable opportunities for territorial expansion, and they renounced the practice entirely once no desirable targets remained.In addition to offering an updated history of the foundations of US territorial expansion, The Picky Eagle adds important nuance to previous theories of great-power expansion, with implications for our understanding of US foreign policy and international relations.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501748776

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1. The Limits of U.S. Territorial Expansion -- 2. Explaining Annexation -- 3. To the Continent: European Empires and U.S. Annexation -- 4. To the West: Native American Lands and U.S. Annexation -- 5. To the North: Canada and U.S. Annexation -- 6. To the South: Mexico and U.S. Annexation -- 7. To the Seas: Islands and U.S. Annexation -- 8. The International Implications of U.S. Annexation -- Notes -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The Picky Eagle explains why the United States stopped annexing territory by focusing on annexation's domestic consequences, both political and normative. It describes how the US rejection of further annexations, despite its rising power, set the stage for twentieth-century efforts to outlaw conquest. In contrast to conventional accounts of a nineteenth-century shift from territorial expansion to commercial expansion, Richard Maass argues that US ambitions were selective from the start.His book is animated by twenty-three case studies, examining the decision-making of U.S. leaders facing opportunities to pursue annexation between 1775 and 1898. U.S. presidents, secretaries, and congressmen consistently worried about how absorbing new territories would affect their domestic political influence and their goals for their country. They were particularly sensitive to annexation's domestic costs where xenophobia interacted with their commitment to democracy: rather than grant political representation to a large alien population or subject it to a long-term imperial regime, they regularly avoided both of these perceived bad options by rejecting annexation. As a result, U.S. leaders often declined even profitable opportunities for territorial expansion, and they renounced the practice entirely once no desirable targets remained.In addition to offering an updated history of the foundations of US territorial expansion, The Picky Eagle adds important nuance to previous theories of great-power expansion, with implications for our understanding of US foreign policy and international relations.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)