From Gibraltar to the Middle East
America and the Mediterranean World, 1776B1882
James A. Field, Jr.
1991; xviii+485 pp.; index; new preface
Paper ISBN 1-879176-05-X $39.95
Chicago: Imprint Publications
The major constants of American overseas activity were worked out in the Mediterranean in the first decades of independence. These constants, deriving from harsh experience with European powers and from the ideals of the Enlightenment and the imperatives of evangelical religion fell into four principal categories: a hostility to the great European monarchies; a continued effort to maximize foreign trade through a policy Apurely commercial@; a forward deployment of the Navy for the protection of American shipping and citizens abroad; and a generalized concern for the welfare of "humanity" expressed in support for self-determination and liberal revolution, military and technical advice, a large Near Eastern missionary effort with an extensive network of schools and colleges, and large-scale disaster relief. In time this constellation of attitudes and policies was carried to the Far East by the same groupsCmerchants, Navy, and missionariesCthat had labored in the Mediterranean; much of it has survived the two world wars; the old aims and assumptions remain apparent in the Persian Gulf crisis of our own time. This book, largely based on governmental and missionary archives, carries the Mediterranean story from independence to 1882, when the British occupation of Egypt opened the new age of imperialism. First published in 1969 under the title America and the Mediterranean World, 1776B1882.
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