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Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900-1930, By Emily S. Rosenberg. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. 352 pp. Index, notes. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN 0-674-00059-5.
The United States emerged as an industrial giant and a financial powerhouse at the turn of the twentieth century. Following its victory over Spain in 1898, the United States became a colonial power. At home, the Gold Standard Act of 1900 marked the end of a contentious national debate about silver and gold and the national currency. Meanwhile, the drive to rationalize policy and make it more "scientific" characterized the efforts of a new generation of "professionals" in a diverse array of fields-a trend later recognized as a hallmark of the Progressive Era. Emily Rosenberg weaves these eclectic strains into a seamless exploration and explanation of "dollar diplomacy," a foreign economic policy initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt but most often associated with the administrations of William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
Dollar diplomacy is the label given to the U.S. policy that uses the lure of private bank loans as leverage to persuade foreign governments deemed unstable by U.S. officials to accept American financial advisors. According to Rosenberg, the term denotes a complicated and controversial policy that evolved over the years in different forms, undergoing various processes and assuming new meanings. Its origins and significance have never been fully appreciated. Rosenberg applies a comprehensive approach, bridging diplomatic, economic, and social histories to study the political economy of dollar diplomacy.
Rosenberg argues that the policy of dollar diplomacy emerged from a confluence of political, economic, and cultural...