Richard A. Silocka
Suggestions for Reading
Imperialism is a vast and controversial subject that has led to an extensive literature, much of it highly biased and argumentative, some of it extremely difficult because of the complex economic issues involved. A readable book that provides a comparative perspective is D. K. Fieldhouse,
The Colonial Empires from the Eighteenth Century*
(New York: Delacorte, 1966), which includes the United States. In a short essay, “Imperialism,” in C. Vann Woodward (ed.),
The Comparative Approach to American History
* (New York: Basic, 1968), pp. 253-270, Robin W. Winks suggests some ways American imperialism was different, and again in an essay of the same title in
The Encyclopedia Americana,
1971 edition, Winks contrasts imperialism and colonialism. The theoretical problem of American expansion is treated from a new left perspective in William Appleman Williams,
The Contours of American History*
(New York: Quadrangle, 1966); from a more dispassionate centrist position in R. W. VanAlsyne,
The Rising American Empire
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1960); and by a distinguished French writer, Claude Julien in
America’s Empire
(New York: Pantheon, 1971). The best presentation of the variety of rationalizations for continental expansion is Albert K. Weinberg,
Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American
History* (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1935), although the book is difficult to read. To contrast empires, read Mark Naidis,
The Second British Empire, 1783-1965
:
A Short History
(Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1970). A lively, sometimes erroneous, but moving book is Dee Brown’s
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
:
An Indian History of the American West
* (New York: Bantam, 1972). Robert M. Utley,
The Last
Days
of the Siou Nation*
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), is a beautifully written record of the last major Indian resistance, whereas Edward H. Spicer, in
Cycles of Conquest
:
The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United
States on
the Indians
of
the Southwest, 1533-1960
* (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962), has provided a full and fine series of case studies in cultural impact. Wilbur R. Jacobs,
Dispossessing the American Indian
:
Indians and Whites on the Colonial Frontier
* (New York: Scribner, 1972), is pungent.
Two highly readable general accounts of America’s expansion overseas are Foster Rhea Dulles,
The Imperial Years
(New York: Crowell, 1956), and Walter Millis,
The Martial Spirit: A Study of Our War with Spain*
(New York: Viking, 1965), which is especially good on McKinley. A general reinterpretation of American growth overseas is provided by Walter LaFeber in
The New Empire
:
An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860Ð1898
* (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963), whereas H. Wayne Morgan, in
America’s Road to Empire: The War with Spain and Overseas Expansion
* (New York: Wiley, 1965), presents a contrary view. The best history of the war itself is Frank Freidel,
The Splendid Little War
* (Boston: Little, Brown, 1958), which is light reading and heavily illustrated. One may also find a variety of opinions on the causes of the war and the desirability of American expansion assembled in four books of readings: Milton Plesur,
Creating an American Empire, 1865-1914
* (New York: Jerome S. Ozer, 1971); Theodore P. Greene,
American Imperialism in 1898
* (Boston: Heath, 1955); J. Rogerts Hollingsworth,
American Expansion in the Late Nineteenth Century
:
Colonist
or
Anticolonialist?*
(New York: Holt, 1968); and Richard E. Welch, Jr.,
Imperialists vs Anti-Imperialists
:
The Debate over Expansion in the 1890’s
* (Itasca, Ill. Peacock, 1972).
*Paperback Eds.
The best books on specific issues are, on the Far West, Norman A. Graebner,
Empire on the Pacific
:
A Study in American Continental Expansion
* (New York: Ronald, 1955); on the Open Door, Marilyn Blatt Young,
The Rhetoric
of
Empire
:
American China Policy
,
1895-1901
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968), and Thomas J. McCormick,
China Market
:
America’s Quest for Informal Empire, 1893Ð1901
(New York: Quadrangle, 1967); on Cuba, David F. Healy,
The United States in Cuba
,
1898Ð1902
:
Generals
,
Politicians
, and
the Search for Policy of the United
States
:
A Brief History
* (New York: Wiley, 1968), and on the anti-imperialists, Robert L. Beisner,
Twelve Against Empire
:
The Anti-Imperialists
,
1898-1900
* (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), which is a lively book, and E. Berkeley Tompkins,
Anti-Imperialism in the United States
:
The Great Debate
,
1890-1920
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970). The best overall treatment is Ernest R. May,
Imperial Democracy
* (New York: Harcourt, 1961).
On the Pacific Islands and Hawaii, useful books include Merze Tate,
The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom
:
A Political History
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), which is highly detailed, and Earl Pomeroy,
Pacific Outpost
:
American Strategy in Guam and Micronesia
(Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1951), which is not. A journalist for the New Yorker, E. J. Kahn, Jr., has written a vivid and moving book,
Reporter in Micronesia
(New York: Norton, 1966). An excellent chapter on the war in the Pacific against Aguinaldo may be found in Leslie E. Decker and Robert Seager II (eds.),
America’s Major Wars: Crusaders
,
Critics
,
and Scholars
,
1775Ð1972
, vol. 2:1866-1972, from
The Study of American History
, Vol. II, pp. 647-648 (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1973).
The general theory of imperialism presents major problems for the reader not well versed in economics, and there are only a few books by which one may begin to stalk the problem. A clear and short survey is Raymond F. Betts,
Europe Overseas
:
Phases of Imperialism
(New York: Basic, 1963). Robert Huttenback’s
The British Imperial Experience
* (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), although it is limited to a single nation, is very lively. Broader in scope is Robin W. Winks (ed.),
The Age of Imperialism
* (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969).
*Paperback Eds.
Fiction
The Ambassadors
—Henry James
Hawaii
—James Michener
Mr. Dooley
—Finley Peter Donne
Textbooks Used in Preparation of Unit
Building the United States
, Chapters 73-76, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971.
Let Freedom Ring
, Chapter 21, Silver Burdett Co., 1977.
The American Dream
, Unit B., Scott Foresmen, 1977.
These United States
, Chapter 18, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978.
The Study of American History
, Vol. II, Chapter 31, Dushkin Publishing Group, 1974.
Audio-Visual Materials
Filmstrips
1.
|
Imperialism
:
Building an Empire
. Critical Thinking Aides.
|
2.
|
Internal Reform and International Responsibility
. A367-13 SVE
|
3.
|
The Rise of America as a World Power
. Unit 30. Yale University Press Film Service.
|
4.
|
Emergence of the United States as a World
Power. 3 Filmstrips, 3 Cassettes Guidance Associates.
|
5.
|
Theodore Roosevelt.
Electronic History, Inc.
|
* Paperback Eds.
Films
“U.S. Expansion Overseas—1893-1917.” Coronet Films. 20 minute color.
“History of the U.S. Navy—War with Spain 1865-1898.” 20 minute color. Produced by the Department of the Navy.
Slides
A set of forty slides produced by R. A. Silocka. Illustrating the Rise of America to World Power 1890’sÐ1900’s.