From the Congo to Capitol Hill

Weissman, Stephen R.

ISBN 13: 9798988332107

Editore: Unconventional History Press, 2023

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: From the Congo to Capitol Hill
• Editore: Unconventional History Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2023
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 13: 9798988332107
• Rilegatura: PAP
• Condizione: New
• Peso: 286 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

A revealing memoir of one American’s intimate engagement with the Congo and leadership in Congress's struggle to advance human rights in U.S. foreign policy -- illuminating pressing issues today.

“I was fascinated both by his life-altering experience in the Congo and by his first-hand picture of what happens behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.”
—Adam Hochschild, best-selling author of King Leopold’s Ghost and American Midnight

This book is a revealing account of two episodes in America’s Cold War-era foreign relations. A young American professor is caught up in a racially fraught crisis at an American White missionary-led university in the Congo and is publicly fired. Several years later, he becomes a key staff aide for a congressional committee battling to distance the U.S. government from the Congo dictator’s human rights and corruption abuses. His interconnected experiences in these two fascinating places provide first hand insights into some of today’s burning issues: the dynamics of racial conflict, the paranoia of authoritarian regimes and the hidden dysfunctions of the U.S. Congress (including corrupting relationships with narrow-based domestic and foreign lobbyists), the State Department (truth-shading and short-term thinking) and the pundit press.

At the same time, this is a tale of the author’s tortuous personal growth and political maturation. Its focus on individual agency in challenging environments resonates today as increasing numbers of Americans study and work in authoritarian countries and strive to maintain democratic institutions at home.

Refreshingly candid, self-critical, well-documented and, in the end, hopeful, this is a rare memoir opening new windows for readers onto America’s foreign policies and its domestic political disorders.

Informazioni sull'autore

Stephen R. Weissman is the author of American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960-19 (Cornell University Press, 1974) and A Culture of Deference: Congress's Failure of Leadership in Foreign Policy (Basic Books, 1995, 1996). A political scientist, Weissman has taught and researched at Fordham University, New Jersey City University, Stanford University, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Howard University. He has published widely on American foreign policy in various regions of the the world, including the roles of Congress, the CIA and international mediation, as well as on the breakdown of the American campaign finance regulation system.