The concept of "imperial anti-colonialism" of W.A. Williams in the American radical historiography

O.V. Bodrov^*, V.E. Tumanin ^**, A.I. Kazakov^***

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail:  ovbodrov@mail.ru, ^**v.tumanin@mail.ru, ^***lelnin27@gmail.com

Received December 28, 2017

Full text PDF

Abstract

The historical concept of “imperial anti-colonialism” introduced by the American historian W.A. Williams has been studied.

The aim of the research is to investigate the above-mentioned concept in the foreign policy of the United States based on W.A. Williams’s work “The Tragedy of American Diplomacy”. In order to achieve the aim of the research, the following tasks have been set: to analyze the historical background to the emergence of expansionist ideas in the USA; to consider works on the foreign expansion of the United States in American historiography published before W.A. Williams introduced the concept of “imperial anti-colonialism”; to analyze the concept of “imperial anti-colonialism” of W.A. Williams in his work “The Tragedy of American Diplomacy” with detailed explanation and assessment; to show the development of the concept in the American radical and modern historiography.

The relevance of the research is determined by the fact that little attention has been paid in the modern Russian historiography to the works created by the representatives with the unique view –American radical historians – and their concepts. The concept of W.A. Williams in the American radical historiography has been investigated for the time. W.A. Williams’s concept reveals the expansionist nature of the foreign policy of the United States during the period from the 1890s to the World War I and shows the main reasons for the beginning foreign expansion with its ideological, economic and political components.

It has been concluded that W.A. Williams made an important contribution to the study of the foreign policy of the United States by the introduction of a new approach and laid the foundations for further research of expansionist policy in the American radical historiography.

Keywords: W.A. Williams, American radical historiography, “imperial anti-colonialism”, foreign policy, United States

References

1. Hoffmann Ch. The Depression of the Nineties: An Economic History. Westport, Greenwood Publ., 1970. 326 p.
2. Turner F.J. The Frontier in American History. New York, H. Holt and Comp., 1920. 375 p.
3. Truman B.C. History of the World’s Fair: Being a Complete and Authentic Description of the Columbian Exposition from Its Inception. Chicago, H.W. Kelley, 1893. 656 p.
4. Mahan A.T. The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783. New York, Dover Publ., 1987. 656 p.
5. Beede B.R. The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934. New York, Taylor & Francis, 1994. 751 p.
6. Barnes M. The Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection, 1898–1902. Abingdon, Routledge, 2010. 440 p.
7. Williams W.A. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy. New York, Dell Pub., 1962. 307 p.
8. Istoriografiya istorii novogo vremeni stran Evropy i Ameriki [Historiography of the history of the Modern Era in Europe and America]. Dement’ev I.P. (Ed.). Moscow, Vyssh. Shk., 1990. 512 p. (In Russian)
9. Istoricheskaya nauka v KHKH veke. Istoriografiya istorii novogo i noveyshego vremeni stran Evropy i Ameriki [Historical Science in the 20th Century. Historiography of the History of Modern Era and Contemporary Times in Europe and America]. Dement’ev I.P., Patrushev A.I. (Eds.). Moscow, Prostor, 2007. 432 p. (In Russian)
10. Bemis S.F. The Latin-American Policy of the United States: An Historical Interpretation.  New York, Harcourt, Brace and Comp., 1943. 470 p.
11. Zinn H. A People’s History of the United States. London; New York, Longman, 1980. 729 р.
12. Grandin G. Off dead center: William Appleman Williams. The Nation, 2009, July 1. Available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/dead-center-william-appleman-williams/.
13. Bacevich A.J. Tragedy renewed: William Appleman Williams. World Affairs, 2009. Available at: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/tragedy-renewed-william-appleman-williams.

For citation: Bodrov O.V., Tumanin V.E., Kazakov A.I. The concept of “imperial anti-colonialism” of W.A. Williams in the American radical historiography. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 3, pp. 786–796. (In Russian)

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.