Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

In Wilsonian Visions, James McAllister recovers the history of the most influential forum of American liberal internationalism in the immediate aftermath of the First World War: The Williamstown Institute of Politics. Established in 1921 by Harry A. Garfield, the president of Williams College, the Institute was dedicated to promoting an informed perspective on world politics even as the United States, still gathering itself after World War I, retreated from the Wilsonian vision of active involvement in European political affairs.

Located on the Williams campus in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, the Institute's annual summer session of lectures and roundtables attracted scholars, diplomats, and peace activists from around the world. Newspapers and press services reported the proceedings and controversies of the Institute to an American public divided over fundamental questions about US involvement in the world. In an era where the institutions of liberal internationalism were just taking shape, Garfield's institutional model was rapidly emulated by colleges and universities across the US.

McAllister narrates the career of the Institute, tracing its roots back to the tragedy of the First World War and Garfield's disappointment in America's failure to join the League of Nations. He also shows the Progressive Era origins of the Institute and the importance of the political and intellectual relationship formed between Garfield and Wilson at Princeton University in the early 1900s.

Drawing on new and previously unexamined archival materials, Wilsonian Visions restores the Institute to its rightful status in the intellectual history of US foreign relations and shows it to be a formative institution as the country transitioned from domestic isolation to global engagement.

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Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

In Wilsonian Visions, James McAllister recovers the history of the most influential forum of American liberal internationalism in the immediate aftermath of the First World War: The Williamstown Institute of Politics. Established in 1921 by Harry A. Garfield, the president of Williams College, the Institute was dedicated to promoting an informed perspective on world politics even as the United States, still gathering itself after World War I, retreated from the Wilsonian vision of active involvement in European political affairs.

Located on the Williams campus in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, the Institute's annual summer session of lectures and roundtables attracted scholars, diplomats, and peace activists from around the world. Newspapers and press services reported the proceedings and controversies of the Institute to an American public divided over fundamental questions about US involvement in the world. In an era where the institutions of liberal internationalism were just taking shape, Garfield's institutional model was rapidly emulated by colleges and universities across the US.

McAllister narrates the career of the Institute, tracing its roots back to the tragedy of the First World War and Garfield's disappointment in America's failure to join the League of Nations. He also shows the Progressive Era origins of the Institute and the importance of the political and intellectual relationship formed between Garfield and Wilson at Princeton University in the early 1900s.

Drawing on new and previously unexamined archival materials, Wilsonian Visions restores the Institute to its rightful status in the intellectual history of US foreign relations and shows it to be a formative institution as the country transitioned from domestic isolation to global engagement.

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Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

by James McAllister
Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

Wilsonian Visions: The Williamstown Institute of Politics and American Internationalism after the First World War

by James McAllister

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Overview

In Wilsonian Visions, James McAllister recovers the history of the most influential forum of American liberal internationalism in the immediate aftermath of the First World War: The Williamstown Institute of Politics. Established in 1921 by Harry A. Garfield, the president of Williams College, the Institute was dedicated to promoting an informed perspective on world politics even as the United States, still gathering itself after World War I, retreated from the Wilsonian vision of active involvement in European political affairs.

Located on the Williams campus in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, the Institute's annual summer session of lectures and roundtables attracted scholars, diplomats, and peace activists from around the world. Newspapers and press services reported the proceedings and controversies of the Institute to an American public divided over fundamental questions about US involvement in the world. In an era where the institutions of liberal internationalism were just taking shape, Garfield's institutional model was rapidly emulated by colleges and universities across the US.

McAllister narrates the career of the Institute, tracing its roots back to the tragedy of the First World War and Garfield's disappointment in America's failure to join the League of Nations. He also shows the Progressive Era origins of the Institute and the importance of the political and intellectual relationship formed between Garfield and Wilson at Princeton University in the early 1900s.

Drawing on new and previously unexamined archival materials, Wilsonian Visions restores the Institute to its rightful status in the intellectual history of US foreign relations and shows it to be a formative institution as the country transitioned from domestic isolation to global engagement.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781501759956
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication date: 11/15/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 294
File size: 53 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

James McAllister is the Fred Greene Third Century Professor of Political Science at Williams College and the author of No Exit: America and the German Problem, 1943–1954.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Wilsonian Life
1. Career Opportunities
2. The Irony of Fate
3. Professor at War
4. The New England Versailles
5. Glory Days
6. The Gathering Storm
7. A Summer Sewing Circle?
8. Lost Visions

What People are Saying About This

John A. Thompson

James McAllister's eminently readable and deeply researched account of the career of Harry Garfield, the Institute of Politics's founder and moving spirit, throws light on the origins as well as on the continuing influence of Wilsonianism in interwar America.

Katherine A. S. Sibley

In this thoughtful book, James McAllister explores a key moment when academics and practitioners wrestled with questions of great currency: war, disarmament, imperialism, and international cooperation among them. The questions that animated the discussions at the Williamstown Institute of Politics continue to shape our public life today.

David Ekbladh

Wilsonian Visions provides an overdue and necessary exploration of the interwar Institute of Politics (IOP) at Williams College. With no similar work on the topic, it fills an important niche that assures it will connect with other research on the interwar years, internationalism, and US political life.

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