American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization (California Studies in Critical Human Geography, 9)
American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization by Neil Smith is a nonfiction work that traces history and social structures.
Work Information
American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization remains a work that continues to attract readers.
American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization is an award-winning work by Neil Smith that can be read through the lens of history and society.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Univ of California Pr
- Published
- 2003-02-01
- Pages
- 557 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.88 x 3.81 x 23.5 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780520230279
- ISBN-10
- 0520230272
- Price
- 3938 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Professional & Technical/Professional Science/Earth Sciences
An American Empire, constructed over the last century, long ago overtook European colonialism, and it has been widely assumed that the new globalism it espoused took us "beyond geography." Neil Smith debunks that assumption, offering an incisive argument that American globalism had a distinct geography and was pieced together as part of a powerful geographical vision. The power of geography did not die with the twilight of European colonialism, but it did change fundamentally. That the inauguration of the American Century brought a loss of public geographical sensibility in the United States was itself a political symptom of the emerging empire. This book provides a vital geographical-historical context for understanding the power and limits of contemporary globalization, which can now be seen as representing the third of three distinct historical moments of U.S. global ambition. The story unfolds through a decisive account of the career of Isaiah Bowman (1878–1950), the most famous American geographer of the twentieth century. For nearly four decades Bowman operated around the vortex of state power, working to bring an American order to the global landscape. An explorer on the famous Machu Picchu expedition of 1911 who came to be known first as "Woodrow Wilson’s geographer," and later as Frankin D. Roosevelt’s, Bowman was present at the creation of U.S. liberal foreign policy. A quarter-century later, Bowman was at the center of Roosevelt’s State Department, concerned with the disposition of Germany and heightened U.S. access to European colonies; he was described by Dean Acheson as a key "architect of the United Nations." In that period he was a leader in American science, served as president of Johns Hopkins University, and became an early and vociferous cold warrior. A complicated, contradictory, and at times controversial figure who was very much in the public eye, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Bowman’s career as a geographer in an era when the value of geography was deeply questioned provides a unique window into the contradictory uses of geographical knowledge in the construction of the American Empire. Smith’s historical excavation reveals, in broad strokes yet with lively detail, that today's American-inspired globalization springs not from the 1980s but from two earlier moments in 1919 and 1945, both of which ended in failure. By recharting the geography of this history, Smith brings the politics—and the limits—of contemporary globalization sharply into focus.
Neil Smith is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography and Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His recent books include Uneven Development (1990) and New Urban Frontier (1996).
Reviews
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excellente perspective historique sur l'impérialisme US
Un livre du niveau de celui de Michel Korinmann sur la géopolitique allemande. A partir de la biographie de Bowman, professeur et géographe patriote américain de la première moitié du 20ème siècle, l'historien-géographe Smith revient sur l'invention de la géopolitique et de la grande stratégie américaines pour dominer le monde: le 20ème siècle a été un siècle américain, une mondialisation et une américanisation menée par les deux présidents Roosevelt et Wilson, avant 45, puis toutes les administrations depuis lors. Une extension progressive du champ de la doctrine Monroe, l'impérialisme! (Comme le géopoliticien allemand Carl Schmitt l'avait vu, c'était un enjeu de la 2de Guerre mondiale ...) Et en coulisses, un géographe universitaire pense cette ambition dans sa discipline et conseille le gouvernement américain. On lira aussi à ce propos en complément le classique, trop négligé, de Geminello Alvi : "Le siècle américain de l'Europe"!
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Roosevelt's Geographer Should Be Ours Too
As someone who teaches international relations geography is not a subject i normally recommend to my students. This book has changed my mind. Neil Smith has managed to combine brilliant synthesis of the geopolitical problems of the 20th Century with an artful biography of one of my favourite post - war planners of 1914 - 19 and 1940 - 45, Isaiah Bowman. The first section is worth reading for its suggestive erudition about why the US became a successful imperial state and why it has now lost its way with an excess of typical imperial hubris. The biographical sections unfortunately show why - Bowman has no intellectual or policy equal in the halls of US power today (or so it seems to me). Smith gives us some clues as to why - a certain lack of intellectual imagination among the current American elite, a reluctance or an a inability due to exorbitant cost to 'make it in America the hard way' (in his case from Michigan farm boy to 'Wilson's and Roosevelt's Geographer') and an inability to think laterally. Maybe that is due to the wider problem of how IR is now taught in most US universities, though there are very honourable exceptions to that rule? If this book does anything to improve that, maybe by bringing serious geopolitical and historical thinking back to a wider audience, I will be very happy about that. If I were to recommend this to a non - specialist I would nonetheless suggest skipping the introduction and getting right into the biography, which is more fluently and accessibly/ intelligibly written for a lay audience. It is a great read, even for the beach. I realise that Smith has written this for his geographical peers but it would be much more widely read if he didn't hide the fact that it IS a biography, which is a genre appreciated by many. And he will be pleased to note that I for one have included admiration for Bowman in my own writings ('Failed Imagination?...', 1998, 2007).
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Thoroughly Researched, Remarkable Contribution
This was an outstanding read, full of rich research over many decades of study. The story of Isaiah Bowman is one that should be known by all for his roles in the American Geographical Society, the Inquiry, and the shaping of the some of the most important US foreign and domestic policy formulations. This study expands the previous study on Bowman by Geoff Martin in 1980, 'The Life and Thought of Isaiah Bowman'.
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Isaiah Bowman and the New World Economy
An excellent book explaining the importance of geography for modern globalization. How the United States uses the world economy and not colonial territory to its advantage is the main point of Neil Smith's book. Few non geographers know anything about Isaiah Bowman. This book explains his role in building Johns Hopkins University into a world class university and how important he was to Roosevelt's decisions during World War II. Why Harvard eliminated the discipline of geography can be traced to Bowman. Above all, Neil Smith's book is a riveting account of America's century.
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Five Stars
Excellent book.