Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut's Books

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Truman to Reagan

By: Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut

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Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Truman to Reagan

By: Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut

In this provocative new book, the distinguished diplomatic historian Thomas G. Paterson explores why and how Americans have perceived and exaggerated the Communist threat in the last half century. Telling the story through rich analysis and substantial research in private papers, government archieves, oral histories, contemporary writings, and scholarly works, Paterson explains the origins and evolution of United States global intervention. In penetrating essays on the ideas and programs of Harry S. Truman, George F. Kennan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissisnger, and Ronald Reagan, as well as on the views of dissenters from the prevailing Cold War mentality, Paterson reveals the tenacity and momentum of American thinking about threats from abroad. Paterson offers a thorough review of postwar American attitudes toward totalitariansim, the causes of international conflict, and foreign aid, and he then demonstrates how Truman acted upon these views, launched the containment doctrine, and exercised American power in both Europe and Asia. A fresh look at Eisenhower's policy in the Middle East explains how the United States became a major player in that volatile region. Paterson also presents an incisive critique of Kennedy's foreign policy, describing an administration propelled by lessons from Truman's era, an assertive, "can-do" style, and a grandiose notion of America's nation-building responsibilities in the Third World. Arrogance, ignorance, and impatience, Paterson argues, combined with familiar exaggerations of Soviet capabilities and intentions, to produce a rash of crises, from the Bay of Pigs and missile crisis in Cuba to the war in Vietnam. Other chapters study the flawed record of 1970s detente, CIA covert actions and the failure of congressional oversight from the 1940s to the present, and Reagan's rewriting of the history of the Vietnam War. In the last chapter, Paterson demolishes the argument that the Vietnam War could have been won and probes the analogy between Vietnam and Central America in the 1980s. Americans did not invent the Communist threat, Paterson contends, but they have certainly exaggerated it, nurturing a trenchant anti-communism that has had a devastating effect on international relations and American institutions. An important backdrop to recent foreign policy, Meeting the Communist Threat combines extensive scholarship and perceptive analysis to provide a vivid account of Cold War policy in America.

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334

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Oxford University Press, USA

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ISBN 10

0198021445

ISBN 13

9780198021445

Green Republican

John Saylor and the Preservation of America's Wilderness

By: Thomas G. Smith

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Green Republican

John Saylor and the Preservation of America's Wilderness

By: Thomas G. Smith

Green Republican chronicles the life of Congressman John Saylor and his personal legacy as an environmental champion. Saylor believed the wilderness was intrinsic to the American experience-that our concepts of democracy, love of country, conservation, and independence were shaped by our wilderness experiences. Through his ardent protection of national parks and diligent work to add new areas to the parks system, Saylor helped propel the American environmental movement in the three decades following Word War II. At the height of the federal dam-building program in the 1950s and 1960s, Saylor blocked efforts to erect hydroelectric dams whose impounded waters would have invaded Dinosaur National Monument and the Grand Canyon. During the energy crisis of the early 1970s, Saylor denounced attempts to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. He was the House architect of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Because Saylor represented a coal-mining district, he doggedly promoted the use of coal, instead of atomic or hydropower, to generate electricity, and repeatedly won the support of his constituents over thirteen terms between 1949 and 1973. But he also fervently supported legislation to purify the air and water and redeem stripped lands.Considered both a maverick and a pioneer, John Saylor won respect on both sides of the aisle because he was direct, hardworking, and passionate about conservation at a time when the cause was not popular. Environmental leaders dubbed him "St. John" because he tenaciously advocated their proposals and battled resistance by resource-use proponents.Based on extensive research and numerous interviews with Saylor's colleagues and members of the conservationist community, Thomas G. Smith assembles the remarkable story of John Saylor, arguably the leading congressional conservationist of the twentieth century, and a major force in the preservation of America's wilderness.

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444

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University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822971054

ISBN 13

9780822971054

America Ascendant

U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1939

By: Thomas G. Paterson,John Garry Clifford

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America Ascendant

U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1939

By: Thomas G. Paterson,John Garry Clifford

America Ascendant" offers undergraduates a survey of recent diplomatic history and international relations, illuminating the course of America' s relationship with the world community from the coming of World War II to the end of the Cold War. Diplomacy, war, economic relations, and politics are covered at length, but cultural relations also receive vigorous treatment.

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452

Publisher

D.C. Heath

Published Date

ISBN 10

0669393614

ISBN 13

9780669393613

On Every Front

The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War

By: Thomas G. Paterson

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On Every Front

The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War

By: Thomas G. Paterson

How and why did the Cold War begin? How and why did it end? What will its end mean for international relations? Opening his new book with the drama of people struggling to survive in rubble-strewn countries after the Second World War, Thomas G. Paterson follows the long Cold War crisis though to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He examines features of the international system that guaranteed conflict: the great-power quest for order by building spheres of influence; the power, ideology, and strategic-economic needs of the United States and the Soviet Union that compelled activist, global foreign policies; and the personalities of key figures, from Truman to Bush, Stalin to Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In his exploration of the end of the Cold War, the author concludes that the two superpowers sought detente because they had been weakened by the economic costs of the Cold War, challenges from allies, and the diffusion of power in the international system after the rise of the Third World. As historical story and analysis, On Every Front provides a telling account of an era - of the making and unmaking of the Cold War.

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326

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393030601

ISBN 13

9780393030600

Contesting Castro

The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution

By: Thomas G. Paterson

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Contesting Castro

The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution

By: Thomas G. Paterson

Describes Castro's insurrection from a 1955 fund raising trip to the United States to the Cuban Revolution.

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388

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ISBN 10

0195101200

ISBN 13

9780195101201

In the Shadow of Authoritarianism

American Education in the Twentieth Century

By: Thomas D. Fallace

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In the Shadow of Authoritarianism

American Education in the Twentieth Century

By: Thomas D. Fallace

In the Shadow of Authoritarianism explores how American educators, in the wake of World War I, created a student-centered curriculum in response to authoritarian threats abroad. For most of the 20th century, American educators lived in the shadow of ideological, political, cultural, and existential threats (including Prussianism, propaganda, collectivism, dictatorship, totalitarianism, mind control, the space race, and moral relativity). To meet the perceived threat, the American curriculum was gradually moved in a more student-centered direction that focused less on “what to think” and more on “how to think.” This book examines the period between World War I and the 1980s, focusing on how U.S. schools countered the influence of fascist and communist ideologies, as well as racial discrimination. Fallace also considers this approach in light of current interests in the Common Core State Standards. “Perhaps the recent rise of new authoritarian threats—not just abroad, but also at home—will rejuvenate our long tradition of democratic education. Schools have served as the bulwarks of democracy before. Let's hope they can do so again, guided by this smart little book.” —Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania “Fallace offers a fresh, provocative history of democratic education as it has been practiced in the United States.” —Walter Parker, University of Washington

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225

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Teachers College Press

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ISBN 10

0807776920

ISBN 13

9780807776926

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Truman to Reagan

By: Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut

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Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Truman to Reagan

By: Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut

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334

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Oxford University Press, USA

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ISBN 10

0198021445

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9780198021445

Contesting Castro

The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution

By: Thomas G. Paterson

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Contesting Castro

The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution

By: Thomas G. Paterson

Today they stand as enemies, but in the 1950s, few countries were as closely intertwined as Cuba and the United States. Thousands of Americans (including Ernest Hemingway and Errol Flynn) lived on the island, and, in the United States, dancehalls swayed to the mambo beat. The strong-arm Batista regime depended on Washington's support, and it invited American gangsters like Meyer Lansky to build fancy casinos for U.S. tourists. Major league scouts searched for Cuban talent: The New York Giants even offered a contract to a young pitcher named Fidel Castro. In 1955, Castro did come to the United States, but not for baseball: He toured the country to raise money for a revolution. Thomas Paterson tells the fascinating story of Castro's insurrection, from that early fund-raising trip to Batista's fall and the flowering of the Cuban Revolution that has bedeviled the United States for more than three decades. With evocative prose and a swift-moving narrative, Paterson recreates the love-hate relationship between the two nations, then traces the intrigue of the insurgency, the unfolding revolution, and the sources of the Bay of Pigs invasion, CIA assassination plots, and the missile crisis. The drama ranges from the casino blackjack tables to Miami streets; from the Eisenhower and Kennedy White Houses to the crowded deck of the Granma, the frail boat that carried the Fidelistas to Cuba from Mexico; from Batista's fortified palace to mountain hideouts where Rau'l Castro held American hostages. Drawing upon impressive international research, including declassified CIA documents and interviews, Paterson reveals how Washington, fixed on the issue of Communism, failed to grasp the widespread disaffection from Batista. The Eisenhower administration alienated Cubans by supplying arms to a hated regime, by sustaining Cuba's economic dependence, and by conspicuously backing Batista. As Batista self-destructed, U.S. officials launched third-force conspiracies in a vain attempt to block Castro's victory. By the time the defiant revolutionary leader entered Havana in early 1959, the foundation of the long, bitter hostility between Cuba and the United States had been firmly laid. Since the end of the Cold War, the futures of Communist Cuba and Fidel Castro have become clouded. Paterson's gripping and timely account explores the origins of America's troubled relationship with its island neighbor, explains what went wrong and how the United States "let this one get away," and suggests paths to the future as the Clinton administration inches toward less hostile relations with a changing Cuba.

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388

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Oxford University Press

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ISBN 10

0190282835

ISBN 13

9780190282837

American Foreign Relations: A History, Volume 2: Since 1895

By: Thomas Paterson,J. Garry Clifford,Shane J. Maddock,Deborah Kisatsky,Kenneth Hagan

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American Foreign Relations: A History, Volume 2: Since 1895

By: Thomas Paterson,J. Garry Clifford,Shane J. Maddock,Deborah Kisatsky,Kenneth Hagan

This best-selling text presents the best synthesis of current scholarship available to emphasize the theme of expansionism and its manifestations. Volume 2 includes recently declassified documents, and provides the opportunity to consider new perspectives on topics such as the American intervention in the Bolshevik Revolution, the origins of the Cold War and the Korean War, and the Cuban missile crisis. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

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592

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Cengage Learning

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0547225695

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9780547225692

Book's by Thomas G. Paterson Professor of History University of Connecticut

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Green Republican

Green Republican

America Ascendant

America Ascendant

On Every Front

On Every Front

Contesting Castro

Contesting Castro

In the Shadow of Authoritarianism

In the Shadow of Authoritarianism

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Meeting the Communist Threat : Truman to Reagan

Contesting Castro

Contesting Castro

American Foreign Relations: A History, Volume 2: Since 1895

American Foreign Relations: A History, Volume 2: Since 1895

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