{"id":4326,"date":"2022-01-23T21:28:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T21:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/?page_id=4326"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:27:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:27:33","slug":"new-deal-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/course-syllabus\/new-deal-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"New Deal Diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Should Franklin Roosevelt have confronted the isolationists sooner?<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CHAPTER 12:\u00a0 The Great Transformation: Depression, Isolationism, and War, 1931-1941<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“The years from 1931 to 1941 brought major changes in U.S. foreign policy.\u00a0 Responding to the Great Depression and the threat of a new world war, Americans in the mid-1930s embraced isolationist attitudes and endorsed neutrality policies that in the event of war called for the sacrifice of traditional neutral rights for which the nation had fought in 1812 and 1917.\u00a0 The Munich Conference and especially the fall of France produced another reversal.\u00a0 Many anxious Americans now concluded that their values and interests were threatened by events abroad and that their security required them to assist nations combating the Axis menace even at the risk of war.\u00a0 Franklin Roosevelt took the lead in educating Americans to this new perspective on world affairs.\u00a0 He has been criticized for his timidity in responding to World War II and for underestimating his powers of persuasion.\u00a0 But he had vivid memories of Wilson’s defeat and feared getting too far out in front of public opinion.”<\/p>\n

\u2013George C. Herring,\u00a0From Colony to Superpower:\u00a0 U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776<\/em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 536-37.<\/p>\n

Timeline<\/strong><\/h2>\n