In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans
Winner of the William M. LeoGrande Prize

For over a century, the United States has sought to improve the behavior of the peoples of Latin America. Perceiving their neighbors to the south as underdeveloped and unable to govern themselves, U.S. policy makers have promoted everything from representative democracy and economic development to oral hygiene. But is improvement a progressive impulse to help others, or realpolitik in pursuit of a superpower’s interests?

“In this subtle and searing critique of U.S. efforts to ‘uplift’ Latin America, Lars Schoultz challenges us to question the fundamental tenets of the development industry that became entrenched in the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy over the last century.”
—Piero Gleijeses, author of Visions of Freedom

“In this masterful work, Lars Schoultz provides a companion and follow-up to his classic Beneath the United States…A necessary and rewarding read for scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy and inter-American relations.”
—Renata Keller, The Americas

1127871244
In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans
Winner of the William M. LeoGrande Prize

For over a century, the United States has sought to improve the behavior of the peoples of Latin America. Perceiving their neighbors to the south as underdeveloped and unable to govern themselves, U.S. policy makers have promoted everything from representative democracy and economic development to oral hygiene. But is improvement a progressive impulse to help others, or realpolitik in pursuit of a superpower’s interests?

“In this subtle and searing critique of U.S. efforts to ‘uplift’ Latin America, Lars Schoultz challenges us to question the fundamental tenets of the development industry that became entrenched in the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy over the last century.”
—Piero Gleijeses, author of Visions of Freedom

“In this masterful work, Lars Schoultz provides a companion and follow-up to his classic Beneath the United States…A necessary and rewarding read for scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy and inter-American relations.”
—Renata Keller, The Americas

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In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans

In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans

by Lars Schoultz
In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans

In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans

by Lars Schoultz

Paperback

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Overview

Winner of the William M. LeoGrande Prize

For over a century, the United States has sought to improve the behavior of the peoples of Latin America. Perceiving their neighbors to the south as underdeveloped and unable to govern themselves, U.S. policy makers have promoted everything from representative democracy and economic development to oral hygiene. But is improvement a progressive impulse to help others, or realpolitik in pursuit of a superpower’s interests?

“In this subtle and searing critique of U.S. efforts to ‘uplift’ Latin America, Lars Schoultz challenges us to question the fundamental tenets of the development industry that became entrenched in the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy over the last century.”
—Piero Gleijeses, author of Visions of Freedom

“In this masterful work, Lars Schoultz provides a companion and follow-up to his classic Beneath the United States…A necessary and rewarding read for scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy and inter-American relations.”
—Renata Keller, The Americas


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674244924
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/14/2020
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lars Schoultz is William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of five books on U.S. policy toward Latin America. Schoultz has been President of the Latin American Studies Association and has held research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays Program, MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and National Humanities Center.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Altruists and Realists 1

1 Establishing the Need for Improvement 13

2 Uplifting Begins: The War of 1898 26

3 Money Doctors, Democracy Doctors, and Marines 43

4 Latin American Opposition and the Retreat from Protectorates 70

5 Pledging to Be a Good Neighbor 105

6 Breaking New Ground: Uplifting Institutions 137

7 To Improve or Not to Improve? The Cold War Question 163

8 Cuba Determines the Answer 196

9 Losing Panache, Entrenching Institutions 218

10 The Evolution from Economic to Political Improvement 242

11 Promoting Good Governance 264

Conclusion: Whose Best Interests? 289

Abbreviations 307

Notes 309

Index 383

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