Dismantling the myths of United States isolationism and
exceptionalism,
No Higher Law is a sweeping history and
analysis of American policy toward the Western Hemisphere and Latin
America from independence to the present. From the nation's
earliest days, argues Brian Loveman, U.S. leaders viewed and
treated Latin America as a crucible in which to test foreign policy
and from which to expand American global influence. Loveman
demonstrates how the main doctrines and policies adopted for the
Western Hemisphere were exported, with modifications, to other
world regions as the United States pursued its self-defined global
mission.
No Higher Law reveals the interplay of domestic politics and
international circumstances that shaped key American foreign
policies from U.S. independence to the first decade of the
twenty-first century. This revisionist view considers the impact of
slavery, racism, ethnic cleansing against Native Americans, debates
on immigration, trade and tariffs, the historical growth of the
military-industrial complex, and political corruption as critical
dimensions of American politics and foreign policy.
Concluding with an epilogue on the Obama administration, Loveman
weaves together the complex history of U.S. domestic politics and
foreign policy to achieve a broader historical understanding of
American expansionism, militarism, imperialism, and global
ambitions as well as novel insights into the challenges facing
American policymakers at the beginning of the twenty-first
century.