Book Review

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 169 words from this article are provided below; about 403 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.4 | The History Cooperative

Wars and Peace: The Future Americans Envisioned, 1861-1991. By David Mayers. (New York: St. Martin's, 1998. viii, 184 pp. $45.00, isbn 0-312-21352-2.) What America Owes the World: The Struggle for the Soul of Foreign Policy. By H. W. Brands. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. x, 335 pp. Cloth, $54.95, isbn 0-521-63031-2. Paper, $17.95, isbn 0-521-63968-9.)

Here are two books by two intelligent authors analyzing what scores of other intelligent authors have written about current events from the Civil War to the 1990s. H. W. Brands and David Mayers explain a commonplace: Politicians, social observers, historians, and policy analysts are better at explaining the past than at predicting the future. But Brands and Mayers illuminate that thoroughly unexceptional idea with hundreds of engaging examples. Both authors have enormous breadth, and each wears his erudition lightly. Each book tells even the most learned historian of United States foreign relations something new and worthwhile about commentaries on the American role in the world in the years since 1861. . . .

There are about 403 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.