As U.S. foreign policy embarks on the “reconstruction” of Iraq at the outset of the twenty-first century, both implementers and critics of this venture would be well advised to consult Cyrus Veeser’s compact account of the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and business interests in the Dominican Republic at the outset of the previous century. Now, as then (neoliberal and liberal tautologies about the natural laws governing international capitalism notwithstanding), U.S. economic interests depend upon diplomatic and military power. The New York–based Santo Domingo Improvement Company (SDIC) had powerful friends in Washington who provided it with noncompetitive access to a foreign dominion of U.S. power. However, as A World Safe for Capitalism shows, this pattern of late-nineteenth-century cronyism proved too inefficient to sustain the expansive interests of U.S. international relations.

As U.S. international pretensions proliferated, a broader vision of U.S. foreign policy—based in the Progressive Era’s expansion of state autonomy...

You do not currently have access to this content.