Reviews of my first book

Steven Schwartzberg, Democracy and US Policy in Latin America during the Truman Years (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003).

http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=SCHWAF03

A. J. Dunar, CHOICE Reviews Online (July 2004):
“In a thoughtful, reasonable analysis, Schwartzberg challenges revisionist historians who portray US Cold War policy toward Latin America as imperialist and reliant on covert operations or military intervention, often in support of pro-US dictators. He focuses on Americans posted in Latin American capitals and ranges from Peron’s Argentina to Haya de la Torre’s Peru and Betancourt’s Venezuela, with briefer stops in Costa Rica, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, and Guatemala. Schwartzberg finds that during Truman’s presidency, policy reflected less the imperatives of the Cold War than the desire to encourage democracy. Beginning in 1945, optimistic Cold War liberals, exemplified by Spruille Braden, ambassador to Argentina and then assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, encouraged nascent democracies and aided democratic movements. Furthermore, not all Latin American leaders opposed US involvement. Democrats such as the influential Haya de la Torre, while critical of US economic influence, concluded that there were advantages to working with the Americans. By 1949, as prospects for democracy in Latin America dimmed, Cold War conservatives directed policy; to a fault, they abstained from actions that might have been construed as interference, at times unwittingly assisting antidemocratic forces in the process. Summing Up: Recommended. General collections; upper-division undergraduates and above. General Readers; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty.”

Philip Chrimes, International Affairs, Volume 80, Issue 4 (July 2004):
“Steven Schwartzberg utilizes his study of the US stance towards the postwar democratic opening in Latin America during the Truman administration to extrapolate a boldly revisionist interpretation of the fundamental motivations behind US foreign policy over the longue durée; one which flies in the face of much recent scholarship on US-Latin American relations, whether it has pertained to more general attitudes of US condescension and racial superiority (as embodied, for example, in the work of Lars Schoultz and David Schmitz) or to specific instances of overt or covert intervention. Indeed, he calls on the reader, on the basis of his findings, ‘to have a greater measure of confidence in the legitimacy and viability of an American international leadership that genuinely holds itself accountable to the twin principles of democratic solidarity and respect for the national sovereignty of other peoples’. This leadership can make mistakes, but ‘it can also advance the general welfare by the coherence and decency of its endeavor’ (p. xii).... Schwartzberg attributes a greater autonomy to Latin American politics than is customarily allowed and suggests that regional leaders exercised considerable influence on the shaping of US policy. To this end he attempts to show how the Latin American ‘democratic left’ arrived at an accommodation with ‘Yankee imperialism’ and at an awareness of its essential ‘civility’ (‘the virtue of concern for the common good’). The chapters on the postwar democratic opening in Peru and Venezuela are prefaced by a lengthy consideration, reaching back to the 1920s, of the political trajectories of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana caudillo Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre and of Acción Democrática leader Rómulo Betancourt, who over the course of their early political careers gradually moved from a strident nationalism towards the political centre.”

Paul J. Dosal, The Journal of American History, Volume 91, Number 4 (March 2005):
“This book is a refreshing return to an earlier generation of American diplomatic historians. Since the days of Samuel ‘Wave the Flag’ Bemis, few historians of United States relations with Latin America have dared to applaud the noble intentions of American policy makers. Instead, we are so accustomed to denunciations of paternalistic, imperialistic, and anti-democratic policies that Steven Schwartzberg’s patriotic promotion of the democratic, anticommunist Cold War liberalism of Spruille Braden may surprise a few readers. Historians should embrace this opportunity to reconsider standard tenets of New Left historiography.... A bold challenge to other historians who are quick to criticize and reluctant to put their own values and policy prescriptions on the line.”

Richard J. Walter, Hispanic American Historical Review, Volume 85, Number 2 (May 2005):
“This is an important book that will benefit all those interested in Latin America and U.S. diplomacy. The Allied defeat of the Axis dictatorships at the end of WWII seemed to offer promise to Latin American democrats, suggesting that shifting political tides would work to replace authoritarian regimes with freely elected ones throughout the globe. Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela (with Argentina under Juan Perón, perhaps, a more ambiguous example) experienced transitions to democracy, although only in two cases (Brazil and Costa Rica) did these shifts last past the immediate postwar decade. Schwartzberg’s book examines these transitions in detail, focusing on the role of U.S. policy in this process. While the study covers the entire Truman administration, the emphasis is on 1945–48. Although others have written on this period before, Schwartzberg argues that the originality of his approach is to underscore and explain in detail the interaction between U.S. diplomats and policy makers and Latin American political leaders…. Schwartzberg marshals an impressive amount of research, especially in official diplomatic correspondence and private papers. The writing and organization are solid, and despite frequent lengthy quotations, the narrative—even of well-known events—is often riveting. This book’s value is not only in its new material. The author demonstrates, he argues, the ‘inadequacy’ of what might be called ‘the cynical school’ of diplomatic history that discounts the role of idealism in driving U.S. policy in the region. ‘The rivalry between liberals and conservatives . . . was defined by competing conceptions of how the common good should be pursued far more than by differences over what constituted American economic and political interests’ (p. 223)…. Whatever the opinion of Schwartzberg’s conclusions, this is an important book that will benefit all those interested in Latin America and U.S. diplomacy. There is much that is fresh and original in the narrative and the analysis. We learn more not only about the various U.S. diplomats and policy makers but also about familiar characters such as Haya de la Torre and Betancourt. The focus on the relationship between U.S. policy and democratic development in Latin America undoubtedly will continue to remain one of the most enduring and important aspects of hemispheric relationships. This book provides a valuable historical framework and set of lessons for those who, as Schwartzberg puts it, ‘place a high value on democratic solidarity and respect for national sovereignty [as] . . . part of the common culture of the modern world’ (p. 220).”

Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs, Volume 84, Number 5 (September/October 2005):
“An iconoclastic diplomatic historian lauds liberal internationalists for skillfully supporting struggling democrats during the early Truman years. He also faults U.S. diplomats for blowing numerous opportunities to tilt the balance toward democratic forces after 1948—a neglect attributed to demoralizing reversals and to the ascendancy of conservative cold warriors tethered to a rigid and sometimes opportunistic doctrine of nonintervention. A passionate pro-labor Social Democrat, Schwartzberg recognizes that early U.S. attempts to bolster divided or inept democrats were sometimes ineffective. Still, he criticizes the cultural pessimism of George Kennan and Louis Halle (who ghosted the famous ‘Y’ article in Foreign Affairs in 1950) for aligning U.S. diplomacy with despots and faults contemporary scholars for their ‘easy cynicism’ toward U.S. motives. Schwartzberg’s copious evidence for the earlier American idealism comes primarily from White House and State Department sources, even as he occasionally admits competing and less broad-minded perspectives in the CIA, the Pentagon, and the business community.”

Copies of my first book can be found at more than three hundred libraries around the world in countries as diverse as Botswana, Hong Kong (China), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/52514542&tab=holdings