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Article: Charles Beard, properly understood. (isolationism)
- Article from:
- The National Interest
- Article date:
- March 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 The National Interest, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE STORY OF how the United States emerged--reluctantly and belatedly--to lead the world has long since acquired the weight of a well-known parable. Like any good parable, this one aims chiefly to admonish, to warn against the recurrence of error, to suppress wayward and irresponsible urgings to which Americans are thought susceptible.
It is a melodrama in two acts turning on the pivot of the Second World War. In Act I, encompassing the period from the founding of the republic until the onset of World War II, internal and hemispheric matters preoccupied the United States. American diplomacy was "immature." Although the United States early on acquired immense wealth ...