https://padlet.com/mashiq137/fy5vaalpr856 aaaaaaaaaaaeaeaeaaraeras6tydardytwafghjda en-us 2019-10-30 21:38:41 UTC 2025-10-30 14:25:22 UTC hello@padlet.com mashiq137 https://padlet.com/mashiq137/fy5vaalpr856/wish/404741982 Title: The Monroe Doctrine

Author: Jay Sexton

Genres: Non-fiction, historical

Summary: After the Revolutionary War was won by the colonists, and the founding fathers of America had established the Declaration of Independence, 1776 America still retained a tense foreboding. Britain - at the time, the most powerful empire known to man - had tightened its grip on India and Australia, crushing all rebellion in its path. This instilled great fear into the colonists; they thought they were going to be reclaimed as part of Britain, despite their previous annexation from the superpower. In his book, The Monroe Doctrine, Jay Sexton - a British historian reared in Kansas - describes the law passed by the fifth president of the United States - James Monroe. Written by John Quincy Adams, secretary at the time of the Monroe Doctrine's passing - and later 6th U.S. president - Jay Sexton describes the Monroe Doctrine as "a means to examine three interrelated processes central to nineteenth central America" (13): the ongoing struggle to consolidate independence from Britain's forbearing empire, the forging of a nation, and the emergence of America as we know it today. The Monroe Doctrine was a law that stated that if any western power were to transgress into North America, and try to conquer any lands within it, they were declaring war with the newly established United States of America - which was rapidly gathering a standing, powerful army at the time. This may have driven off Britain from reclaiming America at the time, but this is not what Sexton emphasizes throughout his novel. He emphasizes that the Monroe Doctrine was not significant until later presidents - such as Grover Cleveland, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy - invoked it multiple times to give them a means to get away with different - rather unpleasing to the general people of America - actions. He connects this with bigger issues such as slavery, and parallels the effects of the Doctrine's invokage to today.

Additional Contextual Information: The curious part about this book to me was that the author was a British historian - not an American one. This was written in the book's synopsis, and it greatly confused me. I eventually did a bit of research, and apparently although he was born in Kansas, he was raised in Britain. Studying history in Britain, he ended up learning about the American Revolution, and its effects on Britain's empire. This war greatly intrigued him, so he delved deep into America's history. He studied American history for many years there on, became learned in it, and eventually wrote The Monroe Doctrine. He now is a lecturer in American history at Oxford University, in Britain. Another intriguing thing about this book is that his purpose is very hard to find  -  "why did he even write this book?" ended up persisting in my mind throughout my entire read of his book. Although, I have some ideas: towards the end of the book, he examines the effects of Lincoln's invokage of the Monroe Doctrine, and how it affected the Civil War - and slavery in general. He also examines JFK's invokage of the Monroe Doctrine, and how it affected the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The Monroe Doctrine was later invoked by Grover Cleveland as well, and ended up serving as a hefty wedge in diplomatic relations with Pan-American countries. This implies that his purpose was to show the current, modern-day effects of the Monroe Doctrine. Alternatively, his purpose is to portray the paradoxical nature of the Monroe Doctrine. Towards the end of the book, he states that "[the Monroe Doctrine]'s enlightened call for a new world order premised upon nonintervention... justified and empowered an imperialist role for the United States in international affairs" (248). This could be a summarizing of his book; maybe his purpose the whole time was to introduce his readers to the great hypocrisy that the Monroe Doctrine ends up residing as in American history - it was originally created for foreign powers to not intervene in the United State's affairs, but it ended up helping the United States intervene in international affairs for little reason besides monetary gain. 
 
Recommendation: There are a great deal of good things about this book - it's intriguing to readers who enjoy history, which most people with opinions on current events today do, and it has an ample amount of study value if one has a test on the Monroe Doctrine law and its effects on American history. However, there are also a decent amount of poor aspects to this book. It is insanely boring to those who do not generally enjoy reading history, and is filled with complex, academic language beyond many, many tenth graders - including my own. It took me a while to comprehend most of his vocabulary, structure, and analysis. He also went off on a few tangents, then related to what he was talking about before - which I had already forgotten, now focused on his tangent. Due to this, it was not much of a page turner, and I could only read 30 pages at a time without getting exceedingly bored. Therefore, this book gets a 3 out of 5, due to its ironically intriguing, yet dull nature. 

Reviewer: Muhammad Ashiq



]]> 2019-10-30 21:42:56 UTC https://padlet.com/mashiq137/fy5vaalpr856/wish/404741982 mashiq137 https://padlet.com/mashiq137/fy5vaalpr856/wish/404743574 2019-10-30 21:47:28 UTC https://padlet.com/mashiq137/fy5vaalpr856/wish/404743574