Pan-Americanism



Thomas M. Leonard and

Thomas L. Karnes

According to Joseph B. Lockey, the closest student of Pan-Americanism's early days, the adjective "Pan-American" was first employed by the New York Evening Post in 1882, and the noun "Pan-Americanism" was coined by that same journal in 1888. The convening of the first inter-American conference in Washington the next year led to wider usage of the first term about 1890 and popularization of Pan-Americanism in the early years of the twentieth century. While the terms have since become familiar expressions to most of the reading public in the Western Hemisphere, their connotations remain vague. Broadly defined, Pan-Americanism is cooperation between the Western Hemisphere nations in a variety of activities including economic, social, and cultural programs; declarations; alliances; and treaties—though some authorities narrow the definition to include political action only. However, the specific definition must always be partly in error, and the broad one borders on the meaningless.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aguilar, Alonzo. Pan-Americanism from the Monroe Doctrine to the Present. New York, 1968. A critical Latin American assessment of Pan-Americanism.

Burr, Robert N., and Roland D. Hussey, eds. Documents on Inter-American Cooperation. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1955. Includes well-selected and well-edited documents from 1810 to 1948.

Gellman, Irwin F. Good Neighbor Diplomacy: United States Policies in Latin America, 1933–1945. Baltimore, 1979.

Gil, Federico G. Latin American–United States Relations. New York, 1971. A dated but popular survey of the subject, providing broad, not intensive, coverage.

Gilderhus, Mark T. Pan-American Visions: Woodrow Wilson in the Western Hemisphere, 1913–1921. Tucson, Ariz., 1986.

——. The Second Century: U.S.–Latin American Relations Since 1889. Wilmington, Del., 2000.

Harrison, Lawrence E. The Pan-American Dream.

Boulder, Colo., 1991. A most critical assessment of U.S. aid policies to Latin America.

Inman, Samuel Guy. Inter-American Conferences, 1826–1954. Washington, D.C., 1965. Gives accounts, both personal and official, by perhaps the most zealous specialist on Latin America and includes intimate information available from no other source.

Johnson, John J. A Hemisphere Apart: The Foundations of United States Policy Toward Latin America. Baltimore, 1990.

LaRosa, Michael, and Frank O. Mora, eds. Neighborly Adversaries: Readings in U.S.–Latin American Relations. Lanham, Md., 1999. Updates the volume by Burr and Hussey.

Lockey, James B. Pan-Americanism: Its Beginnings. New York, 1920. A good starting point for understanding the concept of Pan-Americanism that provides a detailed, sympathetic study of the movement from independence through the end of the Panama congress of 1826.

Mecham, J. Lloyd. The United States and Inter-American Security, 1889–1960. Austin, Tex., 1961. One of the foremost studies of Pan-Americanism, providing a detailed, chronological approach to all the major conferences.

Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation. New York, 1963.

Pastor, Robert A. Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua. Princeton, N.J., 1987.

Paterson, Thomas G. Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. New York, 1994.

Perkins, Whitney T. Constraint of Empire: The United States and Caribbean Interventions. Westport, Conn., 1981. A crisp analysis of the circum-Caribbean region.

Rabe, Stephen G. Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1988.

Scheman, L. Ronald. The Inter-American Dilemma: The Search for Inter-American Cooperation at the Centennial of the Inter-American System. New York, 1988.

Scheman, L. Ronald, ed. The Alliance for Progress: A Retrospective. New York, 1988.

Schoultz, Lars, ed. Security, Democracy and Development in U.S.–Latin American Relations. Miami, Fla., 1994.

Sheinin, David, ed. Beyond the Ideal: Pan-Americanism in Inter-American Affairs. Westport, Conn., 2000. An important collection of essays that demonstrates the utilization of Pan-Americanism beyond the security issue.

Smith, Peter H. Talons of the Eagle: The Dynamics of U.S.–Latin American Relations. New York, 1996. A broad survey that includes the Latin American response to U.S. hegemony.

Weintraub, Sidney, ed. Integrating the Americas: Shaping Future Trade Policy. New Brunswick, N.J., 1994.

Whitaker, Arthur P. The Western Hemisphere Idea: Its Rise and Decline. Ithaca, N.Y., 1954. A stimulating study of Pan-Americanism as an idea and of how time has destroyed much of the buttressing hemispheric relations.

See also Dictatorships ; Intervention and Nonintervention ; Narcotics Policy ; Recognition .



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