A small group of neoconservatives--Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Norman Podhoretz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and others--has had an influence on American politics that far outweighs their numbers. This book is the first discussion of their impact on foreign policy. John Ehrman tells how the neoconservative movement evolved out of the broad anticommunist coalition that dominated American liberalism from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. The neoconservatives continued to advance hardline anticommunism, gradually broke with what they viewed as liberalism's and the Democratic Party's dangerous turn to the...

During the Reagan years, Americans witnessed an extraordinary array of changes, from major technological advances to sweeping revisions of the tax code to the deregulation of major industries and the advent of the culture wars. America emerged from the decade completely transformed: political and social arrangements derived from post-World War II liberalism had given way to the highly competitive, fast-changing, technology-driven society we know today. In The Eighties, John Ehrman tracks this transformation in the context of Ronald Reagan's policies and convictions and examines the broader...

The presidency of Ronald Reagan has become a Rorschach Test for politicians and citizens alike. Conservatives see the Reagan era as the high-water mark for their movement, in much the same way that many progressives view FDR's presidency as the pinnacle of liberalism. Liberals maintain that the rosy Reagan legacy is based largely on myth, and that in fact his eight years as president did serious harm to the country. This book gives due attention to the controversy surrounding the Reagan presidency, and will provide a balanced, objective view of the 40th president's foreign and domestic...

Originally published in 1962, this book analyses the nature of British commercial policy in relation to Europe during the 1783 93 period. The text suggests that the beginnings of a more liberal approach to Europe during this time can be related to a series of major commercial negotiations with France, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Prussia, Poland, the Netherlands, and the Two Sicilies. Other related issues are also discussed: the interaction of diplomacy and commercial policy; methods of policy-making; and the relations between government policy, mercantile interests and economic theory. This book...

This book was originally published in 1958. John Ehrman shows that the nature and range of government in Great Britain was transformed by the two world wars. At the end of the nineteenth century the administrative system barely recognised the demands of war. In the two wars it had to be capable of mobilising the whole resources of the country and the Commonwealth, and this affected the scope of government in peace: almost every aspect of national life was subject to supervision. Yet this profound change did less in Britain than elsewhere to destroy the country's traditions and institutions....

First published in 1953, this volume by John Ehrman traces the role played by the English navy during the years 1689 97, during which time England became the dominant sea power of Europe. The study is divided into two parts. The first focuses on the background of naval administration, considering ships of the line and their construction, shipyards and dockyards, naval personnel, provisions, finances, and the Lord Admiral's department at the end of 1688. The second part provides the context of the war, beginning with the legacy of Samuel Pepys and the initial mobilization in 1688, and then...