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who acted upon them. By piecing together this information, Bartlett has begun the reconstruction of the inner, secret workings of the Qing government. We can build from this base to explore other crucial issues.
MICHAEL IPSON
Arthur Power Dudden. The American Pacific: From the Old China Trade to the Present. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. xx + 314 pp. Index.
When Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, he was attempting to find an alternative sea route to the exotic trading wealth of Cathay, as Westerners then called China. It is perhaps symbolic that 1992, the quincentenary of his momentous voyage, should finally bring the publication of a work which summarizes between one pair of covers the history of American involvement in the Pacific. Despite a plethora of monographs, many of them excellent, on almost every aspect of this topic, and several fine works on American relations with particular Pacific countries, there has long been a need for such a volume. Both Arthur Power Dudden, the Fairbank Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College, situated in a city with more than two centuries of activity in the China trade, and Oxford University Press, are to be thanked for producing this survey. General readers and college students in search of an introductory survey will unite in welcoming The American Pacific.
For more than two centuries, the United States has been active in Pacific affairs. From the late eighteenth century onwards, the Pacific was the major focus for American missionary endeavours and an important venue of United States commercial activities. The Philippines, by far the most substantial American "colony", were acquired in 1898. In the twentieth century, the Pearl Harbour attack would impel the United States into war against both Japan and Germany. Under the pressure of the Cold War, within the next three decades Americans would engage in costly interventions in civil wars in both Korea and Vietnam, in the second case destroying much of their own self-confidence in their imperial mission. Today many Americans see the economic power of Japan as the most serious international threat to their own country, while Asian immigration has dramatically changed the racial mix of the United States.
320
who acted upon them. By piecing together this information, Bartlett has begun the reconstruction of the inner, secret workings of the Qing government. We can build from this base to explore other crucial issues.
MICHAEL IPSON
Arthur Power Dudden. The American Pacific: From the Old China Trade to the Present. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. xx + 314 pp. Index.
When Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, he was attempting to find an alternative sea route to the exotic trading wealth of Cathay, as Westerners then called China. It is perhaps symbolic that 1992, the quincentenary of his momentous voyage, should finally bring the publication of a work which summarizes between one pair of covers the history of American involvement in the Pacific. Despite a plethora of monographs, many of them excellent, on almost every aspect of this topic, and several fine works on American relations with particular Pacific countries, there has long been a need for such a volume. Both Arthur Power Dudden, the Fairbank Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College, situated in a city with more than two centuries of activity in the China trade, and Oxford University Press, are to be thanked for producing this survey. General readers and college students in search of an introductory survey will unite in welcoming The American Pacific.
For more than two centuries, the United States has been active in Pacific affairs. From the late eighteenth century onwards, the Pacific was the major focus for American missionary endeavours and an important venue of United States commercial activities. The Philippines, by far the most substantial American "colony", were acquired in 1898. In the twentieth century, the Pearl Harbour attack would impel the United States into war against both Japan and Germany. Under the pressure of the Cold War, within the next three decades Americans would engage in costly interventions in civil wars in both Korea and Vietnam, in the second case destroying much of their own self-confidence in their imperial mission. Today many Americans see the economic power of Japan as the most serious international threat to their own country, while Asian immigration has dramatically changed the racial mix of the United States.
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