Power Cannot be Divorced from Responsibility

• Department of History

The Interwar Histories Working Group organise a book presentation with Professor David Ekbladh about how American conservatives came to embrace the US’s global mission during the world crisis of the 1930s.

Today’s anxieties about whether the United States will maintain its commitment to the rules based liberal international order it has championed for generations are a reminder that an indispensable component of the US’ global role is whether vital segments of American conservatism accept the mission.  

The right is often left out of the narrative of US global hegemony. The Great Depression and the crisis of world order redefined the issue. It led influential parts of the American conservative movement to accept views that had evolved in response to the crisis that history had left the US the mantle of global leadership. Such transformational ideas emerged at an intersection of scholarship, advocacy, politics, strategy, and media. An integrated analysis of this profound shift offers a lesson in how ideas move across different arenas. It helps trace the emergence of the modern US foreign policy establishment as well as hear some forgotten and even marginalized voices while understanding who laid the foundations of US global hegemony.

David Ekbladh is Professor of History at Tufts University. His research focuses on the history of the United States in the world. He presents his forthcoming book: Look at the World: The Birth of an American Globalism in the 1930s.

Please register to get a seat or to receive the ZOOM link