Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State

ISBN 10: 0299231046 / ISBN 13: 9780299231040

Published by University of Wisconsin Press, 2009

About this Item

The book is in good condition with all pages and cover intact, including the dust jacket if originally issued. The spine may show light wear. Pages may contain some notes or highlighting, and there might be a "From the library of" label. Boxed set packaging, shrink wrap, or included media like CDs may be missing.

Seller Inventory # BSM.14QBC

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299231046
• ISBN 13: 9780299231040
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

At the end of the nineteenth century the United States swiftly occupied a string of small islands dotting the Caribbean and Western Pacific, from Puerto Rico and Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State reveals how this experiment in direct territorial rule subtly but profoundly shaped U.S. policy and practice - both abroad and, crucially, at home. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, the essays in this volume show how the challenge of ruling such far-flung territories strained the U.S. state to its limits, creating both the need and the opportunity for bold social experiments not yet possible within the United States itself. Plunging Washington's rudimentary bureaucracy into the white heat of nationalist revolution and imperial rivalry, colonialism was a crucible of change in American statecraft. From an expansion of the federal government to the creation of agile public-private networks for more effective global governance, U.S. empire produced far-reaching innovations.     Moving well beyond theory, this volume takes the next step, adding a fine-grained, empirical texture to the study of U.S. imperialism by analyzing its specific consequences. Across a broad range of institutions - policing and prisons, education, race relations, public health, law, the military, and environmental management - this formative experience left a lasting institutional imprint. With each essay distilling years, sometimes decades, of scholarship into a concise argument, Colonial Crucible reveals the roots of a legacy evident, most recently, in Washington's misadventures in the Middle East.

About the Author

Alfred W. McCoy is the J. R. W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of A Question of Torture and The Politics of Heroin. Francisco A. Scarano is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Puerto Rico: Cinco siglos de historia.