American Empire

4.0 credits

This course is an interdisciplinary survey of the creation of an American Empire following the closing of the continental frontier in the 1890s. It was driven by the competition for scarce natural resources such as fertile land, minerals, and fossil fuels, and for cheap labor and access to markets. Part 1 covers American military intervention in Latin America, Asia and Europe between 1890 and 1945. Part 2 covers the competition between the USA and the USSR for hegemony in the post-colonial world between 1945 and 1992. Part 3 covers imperialist rivalry for the control of oil in the Middle East as the backdrop for the “Global War on Terror” that dates from 1992. Key readings include Williams The Tragedy of American Diplomacy; LeFeber Inevitable Revolutions; Klein The Shock Doctrine; McCoy, The Politics of Heroin; Rashid Taliban; and Mitchell Carbon Democracy.