Redefining the past : essays in diplomatic history in honor of William Appleman Williams

The essays in this collection do not cluster about a specific theme, nor do they present a single unified interpretative approach to issues in the history of American foreign policy. Above all, William Appleman Williams is a teacher. And good teachers are disappointed with conformity. No one would ever come away from reading Williams without a complete aware­ness of just how little regard he has had for accepted truths, even-when it came to that-his own. With the publication of American-Russian Relations, 1781-1947 (1952), a new voice-unwelcome to many at the height of the Cold War-challenged the standard "Containment" world view. More remarkable, perhaps, than anything Williams wrote about American-Russian relations as such was his dramatic recasting of the "Containment" thesis as a reflection of general assumptions Americans held about the world and revolution. Once that connection had been made, the history of foreign policy could no longer exist in a vacuum, sealed off against contact with contaminants brought in from outside sources. Practitioners of the "old" diplomatic history had a rough time adjust­ing to Williams, in part because they were right: this was no longer their discipline. It had become, or was in the process of becoming, something quite different. Today, of course, Williams's influence has permeated the writing of American history, and not just the history of foreign policy. What characterizes contemporary historical inquiry is a desire to move beyond accepted answers, and accepted questions, in an effort to arrive at new formulations of both. Williams put down a skilled draftsman's pro­posal for accomplishing those goals. In the first section of this volume are essays which will introduce the reader to Williams and his work at much greater length. The second section offers a selection of writings by some of his co-workers, former students, and his own teacher at the University of Wisconsin