The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America (review)

Abstract

The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America. By Jay Sexton. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2011. Pp. 294. Paper, $26.00.)Reviewed by James E. Lewis, Jr.A touchstone for American foreign policy for better part of two centuries, Monroe possesses a rich and varied history that has been examined for many different eras and from many different angles by historians, political scientists, and others. One might wonder if it remains possible to say anything novel about it, particularly in a work that is broadly accessible and largely synthetic. By making new choices about periodization and perspective, however, Jay Sexton offers an informative and impressive account of Monroe it developed over a sweep of American history. In process, he highlights domestic and foreign possibilities and pressures that slowly transformed a tentative and limited assertion of anticolonial ideals into a confident and sweeping - but always contested - basis for imperialist actions. In his hands, considering evolution of Monroe becomes a means to examine the protracted, contentious, and interconnected processes of anticolonial liberation, internal national consolidation and imperial expansion that underlay United States' emergence as preeminent global power of twentieth (5).Rather than limit work to doctrine's origins and early impacts or extend coverage to its ongoing relevance, Sexton addresses what we might describe Monroe Doctrine's long nineteenth - from Treaty of Paris in 1783 to Roosevelt Corollary in 1904. Drawing heavily from recent scholarship, he begins by grounding doctrine in a way of thinking about newly independent American states and their place in world that emphasized both necessity and fragility of union. The second of book's six chapters describes international developments that led to doctrine and cabinet discussions that shaped it, before turning to its initial reception and early abandonment. The remaining chapters trace resurrection, reinterpretation, and elaboration of doctrine between late 1820s and early 1900s. Across these chapters, Sexton shows that doctrine was summoned up from increasingly distant past - and redefined in process - to address internal and partisan often external and diplomatic purposes. In fact, he argues, over course of nineteenth century doctrine was more often, and more successfully, invoked against other Americans than against foreign powers. These invocations ultimately contributed to a rising sense of national identity and purpose.Similarly, rather than focus solely upon thinking of American policymakers, Sexton traces doctrine's creation and evolution by considering active roles of a large number of groups and individuals. Monroe's annual message to Congress of December 1823 was work of a small body of policymakers, but elevation of three paragraphs from that message into the Monroe Doctrine required labors of a much broader array of actors over course of decades. …