America's Rise and Fall among Nations: Lessons in Statecraft from John Quincy Adams

Minding our own business while leaving other peoples to mind theirs was the basis of the United States's successful foreign policy from 1815–1910. Best described in the works of John Quincy Adams and carried out by his successors throughout the 19th century, this is the foreign policy by which America grew prosperous and in peace. This policy also remains the common sense of most Americans. America's Rise and Fall among Nations contrasts this original "America First" foreign policy with the principles and results of the following 100 years of a "progressive" foreign policy which suddenly arrived with the election of Woodrow Wilson as President in 1912. The author explains why the many fruitless American wars—large and small—which followed Wilson's conduct of World War I always resulted in a failed peace and often more conflicts abroad, not to mention the loss of the domestic peace each failure caused among Americans.Finally, America's Rise and Fall among Nations examines how John Quincy Adams's insights are applicable to our current domestic and international environment and exemplify what "America First" can mean in our time. They chart a clear path to escape America's previous eleven disastrous decades of so-called "progressive" international relations.