William Appleman Williams

(1921-06-12)June 12, 1921

Near Atlantic, Iowa, US

March 5, 1990(1990-03-05) (aged 68)

Newport, Oregon, US

University of Wisconsin

Fred Harvey Harrington

William Best Hesseltine

History

Early life and education[edit]

Williams was born and raised in the small town of Atlantic, Iowa. He attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri, then earned a degree in engineering at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. He graduated and was commissioned an ensign in 1945. After serving in the South Pacific as an executive officer aboard a Landing Ship Medium, he was stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he made plans to become an aviator like his father. His father had been in the Army Air Corps until he died in a plane crash in 1929.[3]


A wartime back injury caused enormous pain and ended his chances at becoming a naval aviator after the war. He requested a medical discharge from the navy in 1946 and moved to University of Wisconsin–Madison to begin graduate studies in 1947. He earned a master's degree and a PhD there and came under the influence of the Beardian historians, especially Fred Harvey Harrington, Merle Curti, and Howard K. Beale. After teaching at various other colleges, he returned to Madison in 1957 to teach in the history department.

American-Russian Relations, 1781–1947, 1952

America and the Middle East: Open Door Imperialism or Enlightened Leadership?, 1958

, 1959

The Tragedy of American Diplomacy

The Contours of American History, 1961

The United States, Cuba, and Castro: An Essay on the Dynamics of Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire, 1962

The Great Evasion: An Essay on the Contemporary Relevance of Karl Marx and on the Wisdom of Admitting the Heretic Into the Dialogue About America's Future, 1964

The Roots of the Modern American Empire: A Study of the Growth and Shaping of Social Consciousness in a Marketplace Society, 1969

Some Presidents: Wilson to Nixon, 1972

History as a Way of Learning, 1973

America Confronts a Revolutionary World: 1776–1976, 1976

Americans in a Changing World: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century, 1978

Empire as a Way of Life: An Essay on the Causes and Character of America's Present Predicament, Along With a Few Thoughts About an Alternative, 1980

Bacevich, Andrew, American Empire: Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Buhle, Paul and Edward Rice-Maximin. William Appleman Williams. The Tragedy of Empire. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Kimball, Jeffrey P., "The Big Picture: William Appleman Williams, the Vietnam War, and the Economic Interpretation of U.S. Foreign Relations", New England Journal of History, vol. 66 (Fall 2009), pp. 79–102.

Levin, N. Gordon, Jr., "The Open Door Thesis Reconsidered", Reviews In American History, vol. 2, no. 4 (1974).

Morgan, James G., Into New Territory: American Historians and the Concept of American Imperialism. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.

Palen, Marc-William, "," Talking Empire Podcast, Imperial & Global Forum (July 29, 2014).

The Tragedy of American Diplomacy

Perkins, Bradford, "'The Tragedy of American Diplomacy': Twenty-Five Years After," Reviews in American History vol. 12 (Mar 1984).

Wiener, Jonathan M., "Radical Historians and the Crisis in American History, 1959–1980", Journal of American History, vol. 76, no. 2 (Sep 1989), pg. 399.

Williams, William A., "American Innocence Questioned," in The Origins of the Cold War, 2d ed. Thomas Paterson. Lexsington, MA: Heath, 1974. pg. 225-229.

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The William Appleman Williams Papers at the Oregon State University Libraries

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William Appleman Williams: The Tragedy of Empire book review by Michael Meeropol

article at Explorations Deep Into the Quagmire Known blog.

William Appleman Williams, American-Russian Relations, 1781–1947 (1952)

A Remembrance of William Appleman Williams: Bill Robbins Oral History Interview

[1]

https://archive.today/20050408032214/http://members.tripod.com/~MILTENOFF/WAWilliams.html