The American Century from Beginning to End

Abstract

Donald W. White's The American Century is the kind of book that is likely to give severe heartburn to scholars who disdain traditional historical topics. Not only does it focus to a large extent on American diplomatic and political history since World War II but it also includes a significant measure of intellectual history during the period. Still, it is not entirely unfashionable in its approach. White's discussion of political and diplomatic issues is enlivened and illuminated by suggestive analyses of the cultural context of U.S. foreign policy. The book is a learned and insightful account that should command the attention of scholars who still believe that the study of ideas, institutions, and policymaking is a worthwhile pursuit. White outlines the two most prominent visions of America's role in international affairs that appeared during World War II. The first was publisher Henry R. Luce's proposal for “The American Century” in an article in Life magazine in February 1941, ten months before the United States entered the war. The second was Vice President Henry A. Wallace's call for a “Century of the Common Man” in a speech he delivered to the Free World Association in May 1942. Despite the differences in their backgrounds and politics, Luce's and Wallace's appeals were similar in important ways. Both urged Americans to avoid the mistakes of the post-World War I era, to recognize the pitfalls of isolationism, and to support the assumption of world leadership by the United States. Both also suggested that for humanitarian reasons and for its own self-interest, the United States had to provide economic assistance to nations and peoples that were hungry, destitute, and/or desolated by the war. Luce contended that the United States “must undertake now to be the Good Samaritan of the entire world.” Wallace argued that one major objective of the war was to make certain “that everybody in the world has the privilege of drinking a quart of milk a day.”1