Reasserting America in the 1970s: U.S. Public Diplomacy and the Rebuilding of America's Image Abroad

Description

Reasserting America in the 1970s brings together two areas of burgeoning scholarly interest. On the one hand, scholars are investigating the many ways in which the 1970s constituted a profound era of transition in the international order. The American defeat in Vietnam, the breakdown of the Bretton Woods exchange system and a string of domestic set

Hallvard Notaker is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway Giles Scott-Smith holds the Ernst van der Beugel Chair in the Diplomatic History of Transatlantic Relations since WWII at Leiden University, the Netherlands David J. Snyder is Senior Instructor of History and Faculty Principal of the Carolina International House at the University of South Carolina, USA -- .

'The 1970s, we now know, was no mere period of economic and cultural drift, but also a crucial era for recalibrating the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world. ReassertingAmerica in the 1970s offers considerable insight into this key shift. Particularly welcome is the attention to international perspectives on U.S. initiatives in cultural diplomacy.' Thomas Borstelmann, E.N. and Katherine Thompson Professor of Modern World History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA 'This is a superb collection of essays on a nodal decade of the twentieth century. The editors have assembled a group of top-notch historians of the Cold War to discuss how the United States and its public diplomacy responded to the alleged crisis of U.S. power and hegemony, and to the perceived decline of America's cultural and political appeal.' Mario Del Pero, Professor of International History, Paris Institute of Political Studies, France 'Substantive in content, perceptive in analysis, and exquisitely curated, the essays comprising Reasserting America explain how the country's public diplomats struggled to sell the United States to a skeptical world in the aftermath of Vietnam and Civil Rights. This volume offers novel perspectives on U.S. foreign policy in an era of turbulence and unease, when America's global repute swerved between ignominy and redemption. Juxtaposing American purposes and global responses, Reasserting America makes original and significant contributions to historical scholarship on the United States and the World.' Daniel Sargent, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Hallvard Notaker, Giles Scott-Smith, and David J. Snyder have brought together a superb collection of essays authored by first-rate historians. In particular, Reasserting America in the 1970s succeeds at showing how US public diplomats marketed the United States to a skeptical world in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and Watergate, and attempted to manage discourse through public and private cooperation, and how diplomats and foreign audiences interpreted the messages. The volume not only is an indispensable addition to the study of diplomatic history but is also timely, as it fits in nicely with the recent historiographical thrust that recognizes the 1970s as a pivotal decade in American history.' Brian R. Robertson, Texas A & M University, Central Texas, H-Diplo (March, 2017) -- .