The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America's Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest

by Walter A. McDougall

Overview

A fierce critique of civil religion as the taproot of America’s bid for global hegemony

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Walter A. McDougall argues powerfully that a pervasive but radically changing faith that “God is on our side” has inspired U.S. foreign policy ever since 1776. The first comprehensive study of the role played by civil religion in U.S. foreign relations over the entire course of the country’s history, McDougall’s book explores the deeply infused religious rhetoric that has sustained and driven an otherwise secular republic through peace, war, and global interventions for more than two hundred years. From the Founding Fathers and the crusade for independence to the Monroe Doctrine, through World Wars I and II and the decades-long Cold War campaign against “godless Communism,” this coruscating polemic reveals the unacknowledged but freely exercised dogmas of civil religion that bind together a “God blessed” America, sustaining the nation in its pursuit of an ever elusive global destiny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300224511
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	11/22/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Walter A. McDougall is professor of history and the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. His numerous books include the 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winner The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition xi

Introduction: 9/11 in Parallax Vision 1

1 Why the Bush Blunders? 7

2 Why the Imperial Overstretch? 17

3 Why the American Heresies? 25

Washington's World: The Civil Church Expectant 33

4 A Divine-Right Republic in the Family of Nations 39

5 Washington's Farewell Address 46

6 Thomas Jefferson and the Utopian Temptation 53

7 John Quincy Adams and the Problem of Neighborhood 60

8 Manifest Destiny 71

9 European Revolutions and American Civil War 80

10 The Gilded Age: Last Years of Orthodoxy 90

Wilson's World: The Civil Church Militant 101

11 Cuba Libre! 107

12 The Progressive Social Gospel 117

13 Benevolent Assimilation 125

14 Twentieth-Century Trends 130

15 Wilson's War 141

16 Wilson's Peace 154

Roosevelt's World: The Civil Church Agonistes 167

17 Modern Explosions 173

18 The Progressive Republican Denouement 182

19 Roosevelt the Isolationist 191

20 Roosevelt the Interventionist 200

21 World War II: The Great Masquerade 212

22 Roosevelt the Failed High Priest 224

Kennedy's World: The Civil Church Triumphant 237

23 The Cradles of Cold War Theology 245

24 High Priestly Prayers 259

25 Impossible Dreams 274

26 Age of Aquarius 291

27 A Purgatory in Time 305

28 The Power of Words 321

Obama's World? The Global Civil Religion Aborts 339

Bibliographical Essay 359

Acknowledgments 381

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

10/24/2016
McDougall, Pulitzer winner for The Heavens and the Earth, echoes the sentiments proffered by William Appleman Williams in his 1959 book, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, wherein he lamented Americans’ failure to look inward and their habit of blaming outside forces for the nation’s difficulties. Hewing to a similar critical course, McDougall makes his bogeyman the nation’s non-sectarian civil religion: the belief that God (the god of all religions) smiles favorably on the U.S., especially on its interventions in others’ affairs. McDougall takes readers back to the Revolution, moving forward while positing that the conviction that the U.S. is somehow divinely protected from the normal vicissitudes of human life—a now-stale belief that was once benign and relevant to the nation early years—has been deeply injurious to the nation’s welfare. This was so from Washington’s farewell address and Jefferson’s “utopian temptation” though the era of Manifest Destiny and the Spanish-American War. It remains so with 21st-century efforts at regime change, which often results in engagement in unnecessary wars that endanger the national interest. McDougall is not incorrect, but many factors beside American civil religion have fueled American arrogance toward others. McDougall’s one-dimensional analysis makes his solid work less convincing than it could be. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"One of this disturbing book’s many strengths is its reminder of a United States before it entered the world’s stage. . . . Whether American presidents could conduct foreign relations better without the hype of civil religion Mr. McDougall does not say. But he suggests that the national interest might be a better guide to America’s conduct in the world."—D.G. Hart, Wall Street Journal

"Walter A. McDougall, . . . who has taken on some of the broadest themes in American society and won a Pulitzer for his brilliant history of the American space program, warns in The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy that once in office American presidents are often 'susceptible to a utopian temptation.' They adopt a language that he describes as 'American civil religion,' wrapping adventurism in a gauzy, semireligious haze."—David E. Sanger, New York Times Book Review

“A book remarkable for its depth, breadth, and intellectual daring.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"McDougall’s well-written, compelling, and provocative book definitely fits in the tragedy genre–one that may help equip future policy makers against lies and against the temptations of the musical."—Christopher Hemmer, Air War College, H-Net Reviews

"As Americans come to recognize that our foreign policy has led us dangerously astray, many ask how and why this happened. McDougall offers us an insightful and original answer. By recounting and seeking to explain our misadventures, he shows us not only what went wrong, but how America can approach the world more wisely in the future."—Stephen Kinzer, author of The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

"The most important book on U.S. foreign policy to appear in many years, Walter McDougall's sobering essay is both social criticism and a warning. It is about how great powers rise and fall, grow corrupted and exhausted. It is a brilliant synopsis of America’s still-recent encounter with the world, a lively, riveting historical narrative. The Tragedy of US Foreign Policy confirms McDougall's stature as a premier story-teller and perhaps America's greatest living historian."—David Eisenhower

"A lot has been written about U.S. foreign policy since 9/11, but nothing compares to Walter McDougall's wonderfully original new book. Deftly blending diplomatic, religious, intellectual, and political history, and written with stylish wit and penetrating insight, The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy reveals the historical origins of America's current global predicament. Required reading for anyone interested in American politics, foreign policy, and the future of world order."—Andrew Preston, Cambridge University

"The Tragedy of U. S. Foreign Policy is utterly original, brutally honest, and vividly written. Here is a rare example of an American patriot and master historian willing to speak hard truths about his country."—Andrew Bacevich, author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

From the Publisher

"Walter A. McDougall, . . . who has taken on some of the broadest themes in American society and won a Pulitzer for his brilliant history of the American space program, warns in The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy that once in office American presidents are often 'susceptible to a utopian temptation.' They adopt a language that he describes as 'American civil religion,' wrapping adventurism in a gauzy, semireligious haze."—David E. Sanger, New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review - David E. Sanger

"One of this disturbing book’s many strengths is its reminder of a United States before it entered the world’s stage. . . . Whether American presidents could conduct foreign relations better without the hype of civil religion Mr. McDougall does not say. But he suggests that the national interest might be a better guide to America’s conduct in the world."—D.G. Hart, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - D.G. Hart

★ Sept. 7, 2016
A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian examines the fanatical secular religion of American exceptionalism and why it is leading government officials and the electorate astray in an increasingly violent world.McDougall (History and International Relations/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1820-1877, 2008 etc.) opens with the errors of the George W. Bush presidency based on American civil religion and closes with the errors of the Barack Obama presidency based on nearly identical misguided thinking. In between, he produces a mostly chronological tour de force highlighting the eras of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. During the 1950s and ’60s, Kennedy's Catholic faith certainly generated controversy, but McDougall is more interested in the young president's invocation of civil religion to justify his democracy's manifest destiny. At his inauguration, Kennedy stated that human rights derived not from compassionate governments but rather from the power of God. As a result, on God's Earth, the United States of America was required to further God's plan of individual freedom across national borders. Later in this impressive multicentury survey, McDougall demonstrates how both of Obama's inaugural ceremonies carried the American civil religion to a more pronounced zealotry in the fevered post–9/11 atmosphere. McDougall writes with admirable passion, but he never forgets to ground that passion in rigorous scholarship. Perhaps the only flaw—if it is, indeed, a flaw—is the author’s high-flown, multisyllabic vocabulary, quite likely to send many readers to a dictionary. McDougall's scholarship does not lead him to upbeat prognostications about the future role of the U.S. in the global community. Instead, he predicts that further extensions of American exceptionalism could lead to the citizenry devouring itself on the global stage. A book remarkable for its depth, breadth, and intellectual daring.

Kirkus Review