The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy [Just Not the Way George Bush Did]
Author: James Traub
Americans have been trying to shape democracy around the world for more than a century. It is the American mission, our distinctive form of evangelism. But when President Bush declared, in his second inaugural address, that “the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands,” he elevated this cause—the “Freedom Agenda,” as he called it—to the central theme of American foreign policy. Yet the war in Iraq has proven the folly of seeking to impose American democracy by force. As we leave the Bush era behind, the question arises: What part of our efforts to spread democracy can we rescue from this failure?
The Freedom Agenda traces the history of America’s democratic evangelizing. James Traub, a journalist for The New York Times Magazine, describes the rise and fall of the Freedom Agenda during the Bush years, in part through interviews with key administration officials. He offers a richly detailed portrait of the administration’s largely failed efforts to bolster democratic forces abroad. In the end, Traub argues that democracy matters—for human rights, for reconciliation among ethnic and religious groups, for political stability and equitable development—but the United States must exercise caution in its efforts to spread it, matching its deeds to its words, both abroad and at home.
The New York Times - Gary J. Bass
[Traub] very much wants to promote democracy, and his book is a penitent but determined exercise in salvaging that idea from Bush's "Wilsonianism of the right." The trick is to do this without sounding like a Menshevik explaining how the Soviets never really tried socialism properly, but Traub, who is relentlessly fair-minded, carries it off…Appalled by Bush's hubris, Traub still sees the need to protect individual rights by building liberal democracy, but in a "more honest, more modest, more generous" way. Many new democracies have stalled in their liberalization, hampered by corruption, public disenchantment, ill-functioning states or foolish social and economic policies. Traub understands that democracy should mean more than just elections; it should also mean the rule of law, individual freedoms, checks and balances, accountability and civilian control of the security forces. This book is a nuanced guide for reaching a complicated, differentiated world. After Bush's certitudes, this is oddly thrilling.
Publishers Weekly
Traub (The Best Intentions) tries to rescue the policy of democracy-promotion from the ashes of the Iraq War in this book that is both a critique of contemporary politics and a nimble history of the continuities in American foreign policy. According to the author, the "Freedom Agenda"-George W. Bush's declaration that American liberty is dependent on "liberty in other lands" is-for all its contemporary bungling-a "venerable American axiom." The ambition to export democracy has been "our missionary impulse," an impulse the book traces from McKinley's 1898 invasion of the Philippines. Securing democracy at home and abroad is essential, argues Traub; "our own security depends on the progress of liberty"-just not with the "heavy-handed and often bellicose" approach of the Bush administration. Although he gives short shrift to historical democracy-promotion successes in Germany, Japan and South Korea, the author's cogent assessment of the current necessity and challenges of recent efforts by presidents Carter to George W. Bush makes for a useful primer on American intervention in a changing world. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Kirkus Reviews
New York Times Magazine contributor Traub (The Best Intentions, 2006, etc.) analyzes the history and future of America's role in spreading democracy abroad. The author takes his title from the phrase generally used to describe the policy articulated in President Bush's second inaugural address: "the survival of liberty in our lands increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." Traub traces the history of this messianic idea back to the turn of the 20th century, when American forces swept into the Philippines and fumblingly attempted to convert the island nation into a modern democracy. He touches upon similar efforts made by presidents Wilson and Truman but spends most of his time on America's response, both at home and abroad, to the communist and later Islamist threat. The subtitle reveals Traub's slant, but his criticisms of the Bush administration are couched in a dispassionate, journalistic tone, eschewing righteous denunciations to focus on questions of efficacy. Oddly, the author doesn't spend much time explaining "why America must spread democracy." Instead, he operates as a scientist, cracking open the notion of democracy to see what it consists of, examining why it works in some places but not in others. Like all good reporters, Traub distrusts simple solutions, looking instead at the complex, competing evaluations of democracy's importance in world affairs. He has no sympathy for those who find some people "unready" for a government chosen at the ballot box, nor for those who think democracy is simply a matter of ballot boxes and ignore the impact of history, economics and institutions. He clearly fears a future America, chastened by the Bushadministration's failures abroad, unwilling to respond to the calls of people around the world who yearn for a stake in their governments. Not much new here, but detailed, intelligent analysis makes this an excellent primer on a perpetually thorny issue.
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The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage and a Revolution
Author: Bruce Chadwick
Until now the story of the American Revolution has been incomplete. Many have told the stories of blood and battle, of heroes and traitors, but no one has told the tale of the union that helped form the Union.
The history of America’s First Family is inexorably tied to the workings of the revolution. Martha’s son Jackie (she had four children and George had none) was 28 when he died at Yorktown. George’s own life would have been lost on multiple occasions if not for Martha. Only she could bring comfort and grace to the winter camps and it was in this manner that the revolutionaries came to see Martha not only as a kindred spirit, but as a beloved heroine.
Here is the story of the fateful marriage of the richest woman in Virginia and the man who could have been king. In telling their story, Chadwick explains not only their remarkable devotion to each other, but also why the wealthiest couple in Virginia became revolutionaries who risked the loss of not only their vast estates, but also their very lives.
Publishers Weekly
When Martha Custis married George Washington in 1759, according to Chadwick, she was a fat and amiable widow seeking a loving companion, a father for her children and a manager for her sizable plantations. Their union also met the needs of the dashing, social-climbing and rotten-toothed military hero: he became one of the wealthiest men in Virginia, inherited a ready-made family and quashed a fruitless infatuation with his best friend's wife. As Chadwick (George Washington's War) explains in this lackluster dual biography, Martha was a traditional, dutiful wife whose life in a patriarchal society revolved around her husband and children as she supervised a staff of slaves who prepared meals, tended gardens and produced clothing. As the Revolution approached, Martha saw her role as supportive wife of a political figure. She joined George at Valley Forge during the cruel winter of 1777-1778, and her simple helpfulness, such as organizing sewing circles to clothe soldiers, made her a beloved role model. As the president's wife, Martha befriended all and sundry and had Washington's ear. Although competently researched, Chadwick's latest effort is amateurishly written and lacking in provocative insights. Readers will do better with Patricia Brady's splendid recent bio of the first First Lady. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Former journalist Chadwick, the author of other books on Washington and the Revolutionary period (e.g., George Washington's War), here turns his attention to the domestic life of the first couple of the new United States. Drawing extensively on letters and journals from contemporaries, the author offers a picture of the Washingtons at home at Mount Vernon, in winter camp with the army during the Revolutionary War, and in their rented residences during Washington's presidency. Although less has been written on Washington as husband and householder than as general and statesman, Washington scholars will find little new here; this is a popular treatment for general readers. George and Martha are revealed to be surprisingly typical of their class and era. They cope with the everyday business of married life; George was a devoted father to Martha's children from her first marriage, and the book charts their grief over the loss of a daughter and a son. With their behavior as the first first couple-George's reserve, Martha's open-heartedness, their shared generosity-they set precedents for a new American way of life. Recommended for public libraries, but Patricia Brady's Martha Washington: An American Life is an excellent choice for informed readers and undergraduates.-Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
At home with George and Martha, America's first First Family. Shortly before her death, Martha Washington (1731-1802) extinguished any hope of a definitive assessment of her marriage and family life by burning the decades-long correspondence between her and her husband. This historians' tragedy forces Chadwick (The First American Army, 2005, etc.) to draw mainly from the observations of contemporaries to examine the dynamic between a husband and wife who together dominated the 18th-century American stage. Having already achieved a small measure of military fame, the land-poor Colonel Washington (1732-99) married the wealthy widow Martha Custis in 1759, taking custody of her two surviving children, Patsy and Jack, and eventually her grandchildren, Nelly and Wash. While it briefly charts the troubled lives of the Custis offspring, the story focuses on the principals. George was tall and muscular; Martha was short and plump. He was ferociously ambitious; she was content to be the wife of a Virginia planter. He was a clothes horse; she favored the plain and simple. He was famously aloof; she was delightfully gregarious. He was strict with the kids; she was hopelessly indulgent. Both had a deep appreciation and admiration for the other, an abiding sense of duty and a keen understanding of their official roles, carefully attending to the details of their domestic and public lives. Intended for the general reader, Chadwick's brisk narrative comes as close as we are likely to get to an understanding of the Washington union, but the book works best when assessing the impressive impact of the First Couple on an ever-widening audience. Washington used the word "family" variously to includehis slaves at Mt. Vernon, his staff in the army, his presidential cabinet and, eventually, all his fellow citizens. No special need to recount the legacy of the father of our country, but Martha, too, played an important, underappreciated role in ministering to these extended families, a contribution well recognized here. A deft portrait of the Washington team, building a life together and, eventually, a new nation.
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