A Critical Review of Rise to Globalism by Stephen Ambrose

Rise to Globalism is a captivating overview of America’s foreign policy from World War II to the Gulf War. The author, Stephen E. Ambrose, received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin and is an accomplished writer. He has written fifteen books on military history, foreign policy, and biographies on several United States presidents. In addition to his career as an author, Ambrose has taught different history classes at the Naval War College, Kansas State University, and the University of New Orleans. Published in 1993 by Penguin Books inc. in New York, New York, Rise to Globalism provides an account of the interaction between America and the rest of the world, organized in chronological order and by U.S. presidents. 

In writing this book, Stephen E. Ambrose set out to cover a broad topic in a relatively short book. Consequently, he briefly touches upon some topics, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and its affects on the war in the Pacific, while discussing other conflicts, like the wars in Korea and Vietnam, in much greater depth. His goal was to summarize American foreign policy and its evolution throughout the twentieth century, and he accomplishes this goal in a book that reads more like a novel than a history textbook. 

Ambrose organized the first portion of the book, which covered America’s involvement in World War II, by giving each theater of the war a chapter. For the rest of the book, each chapter describes a specific United States president and his contributions or conflicts. The first chapter describes the conditions in Europe and the factors that led America to join the war. These included Britain’s pleas for help, the fall of France, and Japan’s aggression against America at Pearl Harbor. Once involved in the war, America eventually engaged Axis troops in Northern Africa and Italy and opened up a second front in France by invading at Normandy. After Germany’s defeat, America slowly pushed back the Japanese expansion and undermined their naval strength, using atomic bombs to bring about Japan’s unconditional surrender.