U.S. Imperialism: Conflict and Consensus, 1780-1900

FAIN: FB-56859-13

Amy Sophia Greenberg
Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA 16802-1503)

This historical monograph provides a chronological account of how conflict rather than consensus shaped territorial expansion from the nation's founding through the wars of 1898. I reveal how contingent annexation attempts were on alliances formed over domestic issues, and how central dissent has been to expansion. Based on the writings of a diverse group of average Americans, this study returns debates over annexations successful (Louisiana, Puerto Rico) and failed (Upper Canada, Dominican Republic) to their rightful place at the intersection of simultaneous domestic negotiations overlooked in most studies of foreign policy. In the process I offer a reconsideration of the evolution of U.S. empire that provides historical justification for embracing political dissent as a crucial component of foreign policy.

Associated Products

“’Time’s Noblest Empire is the Last’: Texas Annexation in the Presumed Course of American Empire” (Book Section)
Title: “’Time’s Noblest Empire is the Last’: Texas Annexation in the Presumed Course of American Empire”
Author: Amy Greenberg
Editor: Sam Haynes and Gerald Saxon
Abstract: This book chapter explores the contested understanding of empire in the United States in 1836, at the time of the Texas Revolution. For opponents of empire, the annexation of Texas offered evidence that the United States was following the same path as Rome, and would soon fall. But supporters of empire believed that the annexation of Texas proved that the United States was exceptional.
Year: 2015
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Book Title: Contested Empire: Rethinking the Texas Revolution

Marshaling the Imaginary/ Imagining the Martial: Or, What’s at Stake in the Cultural Analysis of War? (Book Section)
Title: Marshaling the Imaginary/ Imagining the Martial: Or, What’s at Stake in the Cultural Analysis of War?
Author: Amy Greenberg
Editor: Jimmy Bryant
Abstract: This afterward to the volume explores the value of cultural analysis of warfare by looking closely at the memory (or lack thereof) of the U.S-Mexican War in 1898.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Book Title: The Martial Imagination: Cultural Aspects of American Warfare
ISBN: 1623490219

Manifest Destiny – U.S. Expansionism During the 19th Century (Book Section)
Title: Manifest Destiny – U.S. Expansionism During the 19th Century
Author: Amy Greenberg
Editor: C. A. Bayly, Walter Scheidel, Peter Bang
Abstract: An overview of U.S- Expansionism during the nineteenth-century focused on comparative perspectives with Europe.
Year: 2015
Publisher: Oxford University
Book Title: The Oxford World History of Empire

“‘Sold our Birthright’: Common Soldiers in Antebellum America’s Wars of Empire” (Article)
Title: “‘Sold our Birthright’: Common Soldiers in Antebellum America’s Wars of Empire”
Author: Amy Greenberg
Abstract: Scholars have not previously recognized that common soldiers in the U.S-Mexican War and Second Seminole War had mixed feelings about the course of empire. This article explores those views.
Year: 2015
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Labor: Studies in Working-Class History in the Americas

“‘Sold our Birthright’: Common Soldiers in Antebellum America’s Wars of Empire,” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “‘Sold our Birthright’: Common Soldiers in Antebellum America’s Wars of Empire,”
Author: Amy Greenberg
Abstract: This presentation examines the view of empire among common soldiers in the Second Seminole and U.S.-Mexican Wars.
Date: 11/14/14
Conference Name: Symposium on Labor and Empire, UCSB

Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism
Author: Amy Greenberg
Abstract: This presentation at the NEH Summer Seminar for College Faculty, at the University of Oklahoma, provided a new perspective on territorial expansionism, drawn from my research on attitudes towards imperialism among ordinary Americans.
Date: 7/10/14
Conference Name: NEH Summer Seminar on Territorial Expansionism, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

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