Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America

Amazon.com Price: $37.00 (as of 06/05/2019 03:00 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

In this sweeping history of United States policy toward Latin The us, Lars Schoultz shows that the US has all the time perceived Latin The us as a fundamentally inferior neighbor, unable to manage its affairs and stubbornly underdeveloped.

This perception of inferiority used to be apparent from the beginning. John Quincy Adams, who first established diplomatic relations with Latin The us, believed that Hispanics were “lazy, dirty, nasty…a parcel of hogs.” In the early nineteenth century, ex-President John Adams declared that any effort to implant democracy in Latin The us used to be “as absurd as similar plans would be to establish democracies a few of the birds, beasts, and fishes.”

Drawing on extraordinarily rich archival sources, Schoultz, one of the most country’s foremost Latin The us scholars, shows how these core beliefs have not changed for two centuries. We have combined self-interest with a “civilizing mission”–a self-abnegating effort by a superior people to help a substandard civilization overcome its defects. William Howard Taft felt the way to accomplish this task used to be “to knock their heads together until they must deal with peace,” whilst in 1959 CIA Director Allen Dulles warned that “the new Cuban officials had to be treated kind of like children.” Schoultz shows that the policies pursued reflected these deeply held convictions.

While political correctness censors the expression of such sentiments today, the actions of the US continue to assume the political and cultural inferiority of Latin The us. Schoultz demonstrates that not until the US perceives its southern neighbors as equals can it anticipate a constructive hemispheric alliance.

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » Central America » Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America

Recent Products