Dissertation Information for Erin Munn Williams NAME: - Erin Munn Williams
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1996)
ADVISORS: - Fraser J Harbutt
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Dan T. Carter - Kathryn E Amdur - Douglas A. Unfug
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Sources of New Era foreign policy: Public opinion, Congress, and the Harding administration, 1921-1923
Abstract: Historians have partially revised the traditionally negative assessment of U.S. foreign policy in the 1920s, but most have given the complicated question of public opinion and its relation to policy formation in this period only the most cursory treatment. This dissertation addresses this problem by reconstructing the public and Congressional debates over specific European foreign policies during the Harding administration. Because foreign policy makers in the early twenties relied heavily on the press as a source of general public opinion, the core of this study is a thorough reading of nineteen contemporary newspapers and periodicals. Using policy makers' public and private papers, it is possible to explore how the opinions expressed did--or did not--influence American officials.
In Chapters One and Two, I suggest that the best reading of public opinion data is that Americans elected Harding in 1920 expecting that he would facilitate international recovery by providing an alternative to the League of Nations, and that interest in the League declined not because of a loss of idealism, but because of the popular perception that the new administration was exploring realistic alternatives. Chapter Three examines the interaction of public opinion and the government in the formation of the policies of the separate peace with Germany and the Washington Conference for the Limitation of Arms. Chapters Four and Five show that Americans were well aware of the economic importance of Europe to the United States, and were eager to use American financial power to reconstruct and reform Europe. Chapter Six focuses on the public reaction to the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley, the public frustration over the U.S. policy of non-intervention in that conflict, and the administration's subsequent proposal for adhesion to the World Court.
The Harding administration was an essentially conservative one, and was sometimes constrained by the unwillingness of the European powers to accept American plans for international cooperation. But this work demonstrates that, far from desiring any form of isolationism, the American public in the New Era urged its government toward international action to stabilize global conditions under American leadership.
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calculated 2008-03-31 12:12:08
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