A Faustian foreign policy from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush : dreams of perfectibility / Joan Hoff.

Introduction : Toward a Faustian diplomacy -- 1. The U.S. forms and refines its diplomacy -- 2. The Faustian impact of World War I on U.S. diplomacy -- 3. The Faustian aspects of prosperity, depression, and war -- 4. Faustian aspects of U.S. Cold War foreign policy -- 5. Cold War transformation of the American presidency -- 6. The United States adrift in the post-Cold War world -- 7. Flaunting Faustian foreign policy -- Epilogue : The legacy of George W. Bush -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-288) and index.

"A Faustian Foreign Policy from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush: Dreams of Perfectibility critiques U.S. foreign policy during this period by showing how moralistic diplomacy has increasingly assumed Faustian overtones, especially during the Cold War and following September 11. The ideological components of American diplomacy, originating in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, evolved through the twentieth century as U.S. economic and political power steadily increased." "Seeing myth making as essential in any country's founding and a common determinant of its foreign policy, Professor Joan Hoff reveals how the basic belief in its exceptionalism has driven America's past and present attempts to remake the world in its own image. She expands her original concept of "independent internationalism" as the modus operandi of U.S. diplomacy to reveal the many unethical Faustian deals the United States has entered into since 1920 to obtain its current global supremacy."--Jacket.