Tony Smith is the Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His many books include America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy and The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-First Century (both Princeton).
"A painstaking, take-no-prisoners attack on those who believe that
America's historical experience can be duplicated everywhere. . . .
This makes for powerful reading."---Robert Kaplan, Wall Street
Journal
"A valiant effort to assert that Woodrow Wilson's view of how
America should relate to the world has relevance today. . . . Smith
performs a service to readers looking to place current domestic
political developments in historical context."
*Publishers Weekly*
"[Smith] wants to reclaim Wilson's historical memory to bolster the
very idea of liberal internationalism, which he correctly considers
under assault. For Smith, the problem is not that the United States
stands for liberal values and seeks to promote democracy abroad;
for too many, doing so has become synonymous with military force
and overthrowing governments. The association of Wilson’s precepts
with the recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya has caused many
to question the wisdom of a vigorous American role in the world.
The result, Smith argues, is that 'neo-Wilsonianism sabotaged the
very tradition from which it had emerged.'"---Derek Chollet, The
National Interest
"Even a review as generous in length as H-Diplo allows cannot do
justice to Smith’s intellectual achievement in his reconsideration
of Wilson. . . . The point is to evaluate the major actors, of whom
this man stands paramount, for who they were and what they thought
they were doing. As a scholar and our only professional academic to
become president, Wilson would have wanted nothing less. Tony
Smith’s book takes us a long way down the path to a true
understanding of this man and these events."---John Milton Cooper,
Jr., H-Diplo Roundtable Review
"A significant and highly original contribution to the scholarship
on Wilson and Wilsonianism. The book manages to offer new insights
to our understanding of Wilson as well an original critique of
contemporary U.S. foreign policy--a major accomplishment that
deserves praise. Moreover, the book is well written, engaging, and
persuasive. . . . [It] deserves a wide readership not only by
scholars but by anyone concerned with the practice of U.S. foreign
policy."---Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, H-Diplo Roundtable
Review
"Before he became president, Wilson was a prolific writer and a
leading American scholar of democratic government, and Smith’s
major contribution is his reconstruction of Wilson’s thinking from
his books, papers, speeches, and letters. What emerges is a
portrait not of a crusader or a utopian but of a realistic liberal
who understood the deep and slow-forming foundations of modern
democratic rule."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs
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