Join Stephen Wesley on a Tour of Our SHAFR 2020 Virtual Booth

Hello there,

I’m Stephen Wesley, the American history editor at Columbia University Press. Since the coronavirus pandemic has canceled most of the spring conferences—the Society for the History for American Foreign Relations annual program included—we are mounting virtual book exhibits on our blog.

I am delighted to present our newest titles in the history of American foreign relations. The titles featured here demonstrate the vibrancy of Columbia University Press’s program as we continue a long tradition of publishing top scholarship in the field.

In the history of American foreign relations, new books explore security, diplomacy, Sino-American relations, and the connection between economic and political interests abroad. In Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance, Victor McFarland explores the roots of the

U.S.-Saudi alliance as not just an inevitable consequence of American energy demand and Saudi oil reserves but a dense political, economic, and social network bolstered by royal and executive power.

In Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy, Kaeten Mistry and Hannah Gurman cut a pathbreaking history of national security disclosures and state secrecy from World War I to the present, exploring the complex politics, motives, and ideologies behind the revelation of state secrets that challenge the status quo.

Thomas Borstelmann’s Just Like Us: The American Struggle to Understand Foreigners powerfully depicts the good and the bad in how Americans have seen others at home and abroad throughout the nation’s history.

The sixth edition of Warren Choehn’s America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations updates the classic text to include the Obama administration and the early years under Trump.

And the anniversary edition of Mikhail Gorbachev’s On My Country and the World shows us the whole sweep of the Soviet experiment through the eyes of its last steward.

For the duration of what would have been the conference weekend, you can use the code SHAFR20 at checkout from our website for a 30 percent discount on any of our conference titles.