As a longtime foreign correspondent and onetime student of international relations, I've had an interest in how it is that the United States went from being the leading force in the creation of institutions of international governance to an opponent of the same. Under Woodrow Wilson, F.D.R., and Harry Truman we worked to build the League of Nations and United Nations -- the latter, at least, a powerful lever for implementing American policies for decades -- only to have neoconservatives and the Rapture-minded-faithful-in-office work to take them down.
There were reasons for this conversion, of course, and Columbia University historian Mark Mazower relates them in his new book Governing the World: A History of an Idea. My review of the book is in this morning's Washington Post if you'd like to learn more.
For those looking for other reading suggestions, my most recent reviews for the Post were of Mike Lofgren's The Party is Over, Eric Ratkow's American Canopy, E.O Wilson's The Social Conquest of Earth and David Hackett Fisher's Fairness and Freedom.
[Update, 11/25/12: The Denver Post picked up this review.]
Reason Behind Government Sanctioned Pirates
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