Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of U.S. Empire(New Americanists)

In 1823, President James Monroe announced that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any future European colonization and that the United States would protect the Americas as a space destined for democracy. Over the next century, these ideas--which came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine--provided the framework through which Americans understood and articulated their military and diplomatic role in the world. Hemispheric Imaginings demonstrates that the Monroe Doctrine was conceived and developed in relation to transatlantic literary narratives. Gretchen Murphy argues that fiction and journalism were crucial to popularizing and making sense of the Doctrine's contradictions, including the fact that it both drove and concealed U.S. imperialism. Revealing fiction and popular journalism as key arenas where such inconsistencies were challenged or obscured, Murphy highlights the major role writers played in shaping conceptions of the U.S. empire. Murphy juxtaposes close readings of novels and nonfiction texts. From uncovering the literary inspirations for the Monroe Doctrine itself to tracing visions of hemispheric unity and transatlantic separation in novels by Lydia Maria Child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Lew Wallace and Richard Harding Davis, she reveals the Doctrine's forgotten cultural history. In making a vital contribution to the effort to move American Studies beyond its limited focus on the United States, Murphy questions recent proposals to reframe the discipline in hemispheric terms. She warns that to do so risks replicating the Monroe Doctrine's proprietary claim to isolate the Americas from the rest of the world.

Table of Contents:
Preface vii Introduction: Writing the Hemisphere 1 1. Separate (Hemi)Spheres: John Quincy Adams, Lydia Maria Child, and the Domestic Ideology of the Monroe Doctrine 32 2. Selling Jim Crow from Salem to Yokohama 62 3. Geographic Morality and the New World 97 4. Gringos Abroad: Rationalizing Empire with Richard Harding Davis 119 Conclusion: The Remains of the Doctrine 145 Notes 159 Bibliography 171 Index 185

About the Author :
Gretchen Murphy is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Review :
"Hemispheric Imaginings makes an articulate, original argument for the centrality of the Monroe Doctrine to the nineteenth-century imagination. Gretchen Murphy's exploration of the cultural influence of the Monroe Doctrine, above and beyond its political effects, is long overdue."--Kirsten Silva Gruesz, author of Ambassadors of Culture: The Transamerican Origins of Latino Writing "In these times of increasing attention to imperialism, protectionism, and U.S. intervention around the world, Gretchen Murphy's study of the political and cultural articulations of the Monroe Doctrine is not only welcome but also important reading. Murphy provides an insightful genealogy of how a 'principle' first affirmed by James Monroe came to be a cornerstone of American diplomacy and military action; at the same time, she provides a model reading of how an ideological concept was developed and sustained."--Susan Jeffords, author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era "A solid and imaginative work. I believe historians especially will find that it opens new doors and posits new ways of looking at an old topic."--Mark S. Joy, Canadian Journal of History "A novel and provocative thesis... American Studies scholars will find much worth considering here."--Amy S. Greenberg, The Americas "Murphy ... throws down the gauntlet by declaring that diplomatic historians have deliberately excluded culture from their debate and view it as an 'unwelcome and irrational intrusion'. She boldly launches such an incursion in her work... While we may debate the applicability of particular cultural works or phenomena to historical concepts or episodes, the dialogue should continue. And perhaps diplomatic historians and their field will be energized by the contest."--John M. Belohlavek, H-SHEAR, H-NET Reviews "This is an interesting and innovative book... Hemispheric Imaginings succeeds in broadening our understanding of the Doctrine's significance."-- Jay Sexton, American Nineteenth Century History "Gretchen Murphy's skillful interweaving of the forms of diplomacy with the mores of domesticity ... succeeds basically in placing the quintessential American foreign policy--the Monroe Doctrine--within the broader context of American letters and life."-- Alan Henrikson, National Identities