America Between the Wars: Book Review of Chollet & Goldgeier
This paper offers a critical review of Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier's America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11, a non-fiction account of U.S. foreign policy during the period between the end of the Cold War and the September 11 attacks. The review summarizes the book's chronological approach, its treatment of the Bush and Clinton presidencies, and its coverage of international developments including Iraq and ethnic cleansing in Africa and Eastern Europe. The reviewer praises the authors' neutral tone and their focus on an underexamined historical era, while criticizing their reliance on conventional sources and their failure to offer new perspectives or previously undisclosed information.
- Overview of the Book: Summary of the book's scope and approach
- Strengths of the Manuscript: Praise for subject matter and neutral tone
- Weaknesses and Limitations: Critique of familiar topics and lack of novelty
- Assessment of Sources and Methodology: Analysis of conventional sources and missed depth
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What makes this paper effective
- The review balances genuine praise with specific criticism, demonstrating analytical engagement rather than simple summary.
- Direct quotations from the book are deployed effectively to illustrate both the authors' neutral tone and their framing of history.
- The critique of source selection is particularly strong, connecting the authors' methodological choices directly to the book's substantive limitations.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models evaluative analysis by organizing claims around the book's strengths and weaknesses rather than simply retelling its contents. Each evaluative claim is supported by textual evidence, showing students how to move from observation to argument in a book review format.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with a summary of the book's scope and the authors' methodology, then transitions into two evaluative sections. The first covers the book's commendable qualities — subject matter and authorial neutrality — while the second addresses its shortcomings, specifically the lack of novel revelations and its reliance on conventional sources. A brief bibliography and endnotes close the paper. This two-part evaluative structure is a standard and effective template for undergraduate book reviews.
Overview of the Book
America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11, a work of non-fiction by Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, chronicles a pivotal epoch in United States history marked by the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror. The authors dedicate most of the manuscript to the foreign policy developments and international events that America faced during this interim between major conflicts. Nonetheless, they also discuss some interesting domestic developments, strictly within the context of how those events influenced the country's efficacy — or lack thereof — in foreign affairs.
In examining the period that began on November 9, 1989, and ended on September 11, 2001 — marked respectively by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attacks on the World Trade Center — the authors' primary purpose is to glean insight into how this timeframe shaped the current international climate and the ongoing war. Chollet and Goldgeier take a systematic, methodological approach by chronologically noting the major events that influenced the American presidents in office during this era. While devoting much of the work to the presidencies of both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the authors also consider the foreign policy developments that typified the tenures of British Prime Ministers John Major, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair. By employing such a framework, the reader is able to understand the causes and effects of the occurrences that shaped the international landscape during this period.
In this way, the authors illustrate the problems that each president inherited, along with the various strengths and weaknesses in foreign policy each demonstrated. The manuscript also traces the long-term threat posed by Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and alludes to the Clinton administration's attempts to apprehend or assassinate him.
Bibliography
Chollet, Derek, and James Goldgeier. America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11. New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2008.
Endnotes
1. Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (New York: Public Affairs, 2002), 328.
2. Chollet and Goldgeier, America Between, IX.
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