American Isolationism Between the World Wars

<p><em>American Isolationism Between the World Wars: The Search for a Nation's Identity</em> examines the theory of isolationism in America between the world wars arguing that it is an ideal that has dominated the Republic since its founding.</p><p>During the interwar period isolationists could be found among Republicans and Democrats Catholics and Protestants pacifists and militarists rich and poor. While the dominant historical assessment of isolationism — that it was provincial and short-sighted — will be examined this book argues that American isolationism between 1919 and the mid-1930s was a rational foreign policy simply because the European reversion back to politics as usual insured that the continent would remain unstable. Drawing on a wide range of newspaper and journal articles biographies congressional hearings personal papers and numerous secondary sources Kenneth D. Rose suggests the time has come for a paradigm shift in how American isolationism is viewed. The text also offers a reflection on isolationism since the end of World War II particularly the nature of isolationism during the Trump era. </p><p>This book will be of interest to students and scholars of U.S. Foreign Relations and twentieth-century American history.</p>