Charles A. Beard and American foreign policy Book

As Thomas Kennedy points out in his book on Charles A. Beard and American foreign policy, it was the Vietnam War, which provided much of the impetus for a popular revival of the theoretical contents of Beard's revisionism. The work of the "New Left" school of revisionism, critical of America's Cold War mission, hearkened back to Beard's conception of an expansive American political economy which substituted overseas economic expansion for domestic social reform. Surveying a career which spanned more than four decades Kennedy is unable, however, to demonstrate that Beard had much impact on the actual formulation of foreign policy. Rather, his significance resides in the impetus which he gave to the critical re-consideration of the domestic roots of American foreign policy which took place after his death. While admitting that Beard's legacy is difficult to define in a precise manner, Kennedy makes a most interesting point vhen he argues that Beard is both the father of "realism" and "New Left" revisionism in the Cold War period (p. 165). William A. Williams would undoubtedly vehemently contest this line of argument.