It is difficult to make a good case for hemispheric unity as a theme in United States history before the twentieth century. However, the somewhat smaller area of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean has provided an arena for the almost continuous expansion of United States rule or influence. Here, after a prologue of intercolonial rivalries during the eighteenth century, the United States engaged in annexations, wars, interventions, business enterprises, and other activities of a great power “on the make,” until, after World War I, American policies in Mare Nostrum merged with those in the hemisphere and the world at large. Even as recently as 1965, however, the expedients and dilemmas of bygone days have returned to trouble us.
The work under review is a collection of brief articles dealing with this expansionism. The alliterative title of the book suggests imperialism in Africa or Asia rather than in Latin America, for it will come as a surprise to many that American missionaries found much to do in a predominantly Catholic area. They are perhaps overrepresented here in essays dealing with religious policy in the occupation of Mexico City, Baptist activities in Cuba through independence and two occupations, and an apparently nonsectarian Protestant mission in Guatemala. It is the merchants who are slighted, with only one essay on U.S.-Mexican trade—and even that as seen through British eyes. War and diplomacy appear in the form of two essays on Anglo-Spanish rivalry in the eighteenth century and others on aviation in Mexican-American relations during the Mexican Revolution and air defense in the Caribbean during World War II. The remaining two essays defy classification—a sketch of forty-niners in Panama, en route to the goldfields, and an account of a Congressional investigation of Puerto Rican affairs during World War II.
Rather a mixed bag. No one should be greatly surprised to learn that this is a Festschrift, produced by students of Alfred Barnaby Thomas to honor their mentor in his retirement. Obviously the great range of the essays (within the carefully defined area) is a tribute to Thomas’ catholic interests and knowledge. Their consistent quality also testifies to his excellent instruction. Although none of the authors is a well-known Latin Americanist, all the essays are carefully researched, usually in original sources, and clearly written without padding, archness, or pontification. Miniatures they may be, but they are products of a professional workshop.
Still, something is lacking, as usual in collaborative works of this sort. The book needs a broadly interpretive essay or two which might pull together the disparate topics and show the reader that they all belong to one great historical process. United States expansion in Middle America is a matter of pride to some, shame to others, and puzzlement to many. Its history forms the base of modern hemispheric relations and both foreshadows and conditions much of contemporary American world policy. The subject still awaits an adequate synthesis.
