David Milne

This book offers "a new take on the history of American diplomacy. Rather than retracing a familiar story of realism versus idealism, David Milne suggests that U.S. foreign policy has also been crucially divided between those who view statecraft as an art and those who believe it can aspire toward the certainties of science. [The book] follows a colorful cast of characters who built on each other's ideas to create the policies we have today ... From the age of steam engines to the age of drones, Milne reveals patterns of aspirant worldmaking that have remained impervious to the passage of time. The result is a panoramic history of U.S. foreign policy driven by ideas and the lives and times of their creators"--

David Milne's America's Rasputin provides the first major study of the man who pushed two presidents into Vietnam. Walt Rostow's meteoric rise to power—from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House—seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.

This beautifully illustrated book documents the life and work of David Milne (1882-1953), one of Canada's greatest modern painters whose vast body of work shows him to be an artist of true originality and vision. Like the members of the Group of Seven, Milne primarily chose landscape as his subject matter. However, his true subject was the process of perception and representation, reducing his painting to its essentials and infusing it with his own distinctive modern sensibility. The book presents an account of one man's spiritual and emotional voyage into modernity - from the bustling sidewalks of New York to the war-torn landscapes of northern France and back to rural Canada. With more than one hundred works in oil and watercolour, this publication provides an appreciation of one of Canada's most sophisticated modern painters.

Alexander Milne was the pre-eminent naval administrator of the Victorian Royal Navy, spending eighteen years at the Admiralty between 1847 and 1876, over six of them as First Naval Lord. His administrative career coincided exactly with the greatest technological upheaval in warfare at sea since sails supplanted oars, and he played an important role in almost every step of the Navy's transformation from sail to steam, wood to iron, and in the equally critical processes of devising a modern system of recruiting and training enlisted personnel, and evolving a coherent strategy suitable for a steam-powered fleet. This collection is drawn from a rich documentary record of Milne's and the Board's labours during the late 1840s and 1850s. It also encompasses Milne's earlier sea service, furnishing a unique glimpse of the maritime policing operations of the Navy during the Pax Britannica.

Winner, 2023 Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations, History Section, International Studies Association Ideology drives American foreign policy in ways seen and unseen. Racialized notions of subjecthood and civilization underlay the political revolution of eighteenth-century white colonizers; neoconservatism, neoliberalism, and unilateralism propelled the post–Cold War United States to unleash catastrophe in the Middle East. Ideologies order and explain the world, project the illusion of controllable outcomes, and often explain success and failure. How does the history of U.S. foreign relations appear differently when viewed through the lens of ideology? This book explores the ideological landscape of international relations from the colonial era to the present. Contributors examine ideologies developed to justify—or resist—white settler colonialism and free-trade imperialism, and they discuss the role of nationalism in immigration policy. The book reveals new insights on the role of ideas at the intersection of U.S. foreign and domestic policy and politics. It shows how the ideals coded as “civilization,” “freedom,” and “democracy” legitimized U.S. military interventions and enabled foreign leaders to turn American power to their benefit. The book traces the ideological struggle over competing visions of democracy and of American democracy’s place in the world and in history. It highlights sources beyond the realm of traditional diplomatic history, including nonstate actors and historically marginalized voices. Featuring the foremost specialists as well as rising stars, this book offers a foundational statement on the intellectual history of U.S. foreign policy.

Few things should go together better than psychology and law - and few things are getting together less successfully. Edited by four psychologists and a lawyer, and drawing on contributions from Europe, the USA and Australia, Applying Psychology to Criminal Justice argues that psychology should be applied more widely within the criminal justice system. Contributors develop the case for successfully applying psychology to justice by providing a rich range of applicable examples for development now and in the future. Readers are encouraged to challenge the limited ambition and imagination of psychology and law by examining how insights in areas such as offender cognition and decision-making under pressure might inform future investigation and analysis.

A well illustrated concise introduction to the art and life of David Milne (1882-1953), widely regarded as one of the most gifted Canadian painters of his generation.