There must be someway outta here said the Joker to the Thief

I was first introduced to William Appleman Williams in Ronnie Lipschutz' "The US in the World" class at UCSC. Williams' reputation preceded him. I had a vague sense that The Tragedy of American Diplomacy was the most important book on American foreign policy ever written, but no knowledge of the book's substance. Suffice to say, the book disappointed. I couldn't quite figure out how this book first penned in 1959, with slight revisions in in 1961, and rather substantial additions in 1972. As I read it, it made sense why the book was hardly read in 1959, and almost totally unreviewed. I had recently read Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, and J.P. Sartre's introduction. Along side that tract (penned at roughly the same time), Williams' rather rambling meditations on John Hay's Open Door Notes seemed rather modest and tame. I should have read Empire as a Way of Life. If I am ever in the position to assign reading on American Empire, I will give a short lecture on the social origins of W.A. Williams, and the intellectual history of his famous book. But I will assign Empire as a Way of Life: an impassioned and prophetic essay.

Some highlights (perhaps I'll elaborate more):

Empire is about "the loss of sovereignty... the metropolitan domination of the weaker economy (and its political and social superstructure) to ensure the extraction of economic rewards." (15)

Montesquieu's principle [was] that liberty could exist only in a small state. Madison boldly argued the opposite: that empire was essential to freedom." (45)

TJ flirts with the idea of direct redistribution of property- but ultimately backed off from this proposition- and advocated imperial expansion on the frontier as an alternative to a direct confrontation with the Power of Money. (57)

"an honest imperialist is surely preferable to an apologetic, let alone a disingenuous, imperialist." (84)

As for the War of the States, Williams says: "let the South go. Or, for that matter, let the north leave first." But instead Lincoln "made a deal with the Devil." He could have his empire (of "freedom" of course...) only if he "was willing to destroy the southern culture based on slavery." Unfortunately, Lincoln's quick victory did not materialize. Lincoln rolled the dice with the devil and lost. Lincoln and his men "established a strategic tradition of destroying the opponent's society that caused so much trouble - and horror - America's later wars... It was brilliant military strategy and miserable morality." 87-89

Sen James Doolittle: "the surplus of free land 'will postpone for centuries, if not forever, all serious conflict between capital and labor." 90
But in fairness, "One may doubt that even Karl Marx could have done so [devised a persuasive non-imperial alternative to empire as a way of life]. Indeed, Marx would have probably shrugged his shoulders (and ideology) and said only that socialism is unimaginable, let alone pragmatically possible, until capitalist empire has run its course."97

And so TR, Taft and Wilson devised an image as a "global policeman" to replace the continental empire that had reached its limits. 124

It was Hoover who understood the limits of empire- Hoover understood that Wilson's "New World Order" was a fool errand, and had no interest in confronting every outburst of revolutionary nationalism the world over, but he was outgunned in the face of superior Democratic opposition. 139-142

Instead FDR blamed him for the problems endemic to capitalism- and sought to discredit his philosophy, and once and for all put to bed any notion that there were limits to American power.

FDR's New Deal did not generate peacetime recovery -- let alone a new burst of growth and prosperity. Most Americans realized, privately if not publicly, that the economy was revived only through WWII." (148). His first move was to reverse Hoover's policy of cutting military spending by dramatically expanding US war spending (in 1933!). "In the broader, structural sense, the New Deal created an institutional link between the huge companies and the military." 150. FDR "was simply a charming upper-class disingenuous leader who understood that marketplace capitalism had proved incapable of functioning without being subsidized by the taxpayer. And he could not imagine anything beyond marketplace capitalism." 150. "The point is that, while it was a New Deal, it was not a different game. The imperial outlook had once again become a vision of progress for everyone." 151.

on WWII, FDR had a choice, admit we are an empire and fight like an empire (open a second front in France in 1942) or dissemble and try to trick the Russians into fighting for us. He chose the later. While the Russians lost 20 million people, the US gained 20 million new jobs. Americans had never lived so as as they lived during WWII. Oh, if only the war could be kept going forever... The US lost 405,399 men and inherited a world scarred by colonialism. 167-168

Is this deeply iconoclast interpretation of American history simply Williams' nostalgia for his Great Depression era youth? In many ways the book reads like a call to reenter the Great Depression and figure out a new way out of it. One not predicated on global expansion, and the unholy alliance of State and Corporate power.