Manifest Destiny and U.S. Foreign Policy

elective courses
elective monographs

Student should possess basic knowledge and understanding of the US foreign policy events. He/she should be interested in concepts and ideological assumptions that shaped American visions of the country’s position and role in the world’s affairs.

Classroom
Self-reading

In the mid-19th century, the concept of manifest destiny thrilled the United States and caught the attention of journalists, intellectuals and eventually the authorities. It significantly shaped the discourse on the U.S.’ development as well as its domestic and foreign policies. Manifest destiny imposed a unique mission on the United States. The ideology flourished significantly as the U.S. expanded its territorial borders in the second half of the 19th century. it later helped explain and provide legitimization to U.S. political decisions around U.S. expansionist foreign policy at the turn of the 20th century.

The course will discuss the role of manifest destiny and the idea of “mission” that directly derived from it, and will look into how it shaped and legitimized U.S. foreign policy directions and decisions.

In the mid-19th century, the concept of manifest destiny thrilled the United States and caught the attention of journalists, intellectuals and eventually the authorities. It significantly shaped the discourse on the U.S.’ development as well as its domestic and foreign policies. Manifest destiny imposed a unique mission on the United States. The ideology flourished significantly as the U.S. expanded its territorial borders in the second half of the 19th century. it later helped explain and provide legitimization to U.S. political decisions around U.S. expansionist foreign policy at the turn of the 20th century.

The course will discuss the role of manifest destiny and the idea of “mission” that directly derived from it, and will look into how it shaped and legitimized U.S. foreign policy directions and decisions.

We will analyze the roots of the expansionist mood in American foreign policy in the 19th century and examine U.S. Cold War policies through the lens of the manifest destiny sentiment. We will also make attempts to search for modern ingredients (substitutes, equivalents, symbolism) of manifest destiny in U.S. foreign policy decisions at the beginning of the 21st century.

After the course, students will understand the way Americans think about their moral responsibility in the world and how this sentiment has driven U.S. authorities’ foreign policy decisions. They will understand the complexity of U.S. thinking about the country’s relations with the contemporary world.

Bibliografia:

Adams, Brooks, The Law of Civilization and Decay, An Essay on History, Swan Sonnenschein and Co. Lim. London 1895.

Anti-Imperialist Reader. A Documentary History of Anti-Imperialism in the United States, vol. I Philip S. Foner and Richard C. Winchester (eds.), Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., New York, London 1984.

Bartkiewicz-Godlewska, Justyna, Amerykańskie Przeznaczenie. Rola Frontier i Manifest Destiny w polityce zagranicznej USA 1898-1921, Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa 2019.

Current, Richard N. and John A. Garraty (eds.), Words That Made American History, vol. I, Little Brown and Company, Boston & Toronto 1965.

Graebner, Norman A., Manifest Destiny, Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis and New York 1968.

Heidler, David S., Jeanne T. Heidler, Manifest Destiny, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 2003.

Hietala, Thomas R., Manifest Design. American Exceptionalism and Empire, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 2003.

Hofstadter, Richard and Beatrice K. Hofstadter, Great Issues in American History. From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York 1982.

LaFeber, Walter, The American Age. United States at Home and Abroad since 1750, WW Norton & Company, New York, London, 1989.

Lipset, Seymour Martin, American Exceptionalism. A Double-Edged Sword, W.W. Norton & Company, New York 1997.

Mahan, Alfred T. and Charles Beresford, „Possibilities of an Anglo-Saxon Reunion”, w: The North American Review (październik 1893 r.).

Merk, Frederick, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1970.

Parafianowicz, Halina, „Exceptionalism of America: Some Reflections”, w: Białostockie Teki Historyczne, vol. 9 (2011), s. 213-224.

The Penguin Book of Twentieth – Century Speeches, Brian McArtur (ed.), Penguin Books, London 1999.

Scott, James Brown, President Wilson’s Foreign Policy. Messages, Addresses, Papers, Oxford University Press, New York, 1918.

Stephanson, Anders, Manifest Destiny, American Expansion and the Empire of Right, Hill and Wang, New York 2000.

Strong, Josiah, Our Country. Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, The Baker & Taylor Co. New York 1893.

Turner, Frederick Jackson, Frontier in American History, RE. Krieger Pub. Co., Huntington, NY 1975.

Williams, William Appleman, The Shaping of American Diplomacy: Reading and Documents in American Foreign Relations 1750-1955, Rand McNally, Chicago 1964.

Zakaria, Fareed, From Wealth to Power. The Unusual Origins of American World Role, Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey 1999.

Zimmermann, Warren, First Great Triumph,. How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2002.

Knowledge:

- Student possesses knowledge about the origins of the American concept of Manifest Destiny, its supporters and its political significance;

- Student can identify the core elements of the MD concept and their presence in the foreign policy discourse in the historical and in the contemporary context;

- Student has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the MD concept, its presence in the US foreign policy and its scope of political impact.

Skills:

- Student can analyze in an independent way the elements of the MD concept. He/she can identify them in the American political rhetoric and political practice.

- Student can analize intentions of the participants of the foreign policy debate(s) with regard to the presence of the MD in US foreign policy.

Social competences:

- Student broadens his/her knowledge on the topic of ideas that have shaped the US foreign policy;

- Student shares his/her knowledge through a presentation and participation in class discussions.

Accreditation (zaliczenie):

- in-class written test (50%);

- in-class presentation on a subject-related topic (20%)

- term-paper (20%)

- participation in class discussion (10%)

Grading scale:

55-64% = 3

65-74% = 3,5

75-84% = 4

85-94% = 4,5

95-100% = 5