Henry Cabot Lodge And The Search For An American Foreign Policy

Haley Hill

September 25, 2014

Intro Historical Research & Writing

Book Review

William C. Widenor. Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy. Berkely: U of California. 1980.

Henry Cabot Lodge is often viewed as the imperialist friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and of course Woodrow Wilson’s enemy. Widenor clearly lays out his purpose for writing this book right there in the preface when he says, “My purpose in this book is to provide an account of the development of Henry Cabot Lodge’s thought on questions of foreign policy.” (p. IX). Widenor then goes on to explain that while Historians have examined Henry Cabot Lodge’s political doings and undoings, they have not looked at his thinking. Henry Cabot Lodge’s educational background shaped his views toward American foreign policy. Widenor explains that Lodge was one of three young men to get the first PH.D.’s in history from Harvard in the United States. Lodge thought a widespread interest in history was, “proof of national consciousness and of the abiding sense that a nation has come to its place in the world.”(p. 1).

He goes on to say that Lodge understood how foreign policy worked in a democracy and the relationship between force and peace. Widenor then made sure to add that his intentions were not to restore Henry Cabot Lodge’s reputation, but to show that Lodge wrote about and helped make American foreign policy. Widenor wants to look at the fact that he thinks Lodge provides a good vehicle for looking at the relationship between foreign policy and domestic political structure. Also, looking at the role of his ideology in international