A valuable addition to the reference material for the period and should be strongly considered by academic and large public libraries alike.

Booklist

This historical dictionary covers diplomacy during WW I, WW II, and the interwar period. It gives readers a glimpse of the aggressive foreign policy of the war periods and the more isolationist approach between the wars. Folly and Palmer (both, Brunel Univ., UK) are scholars of US foreign policy and political history. The work begins with a list of acronyms and a detailed event chronology. The introduction (approximately 40 pages) is well written, especially considering the challenge of writing a succinct overview of a multifaceted topic. The dictionary portion covers people, events, declarations, acts, organizations, and useful terminology related to the study of US diplomacy. Each entry is highly readable and provides adequate information for those who use the work as a historical reference and those who wish to use it as a springboard for further investigation. Appendixes list important conferences and figures in US government from WW I through WW II. The introduction to the bibliography provides a useful overview of the theoretical approaches to the historiography and literature of the period. The bibliography is then organized by subtopic to make finding relevant references easy. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

Folly (Awakening Giant) and Palmer (Twenties in America) start this guide with a year-by-year chronology that begins with America's November 1913 demand that Mexico's leader resign and ends with the 1945 Nuremberg War Crimes trials. A 38-page introduction offers a substantial historical survey of the two wars, sensibly punctuated by subject headings referring to watershed events or significant themes. The bulk of the title is devoted to entries explaining the significance of relevant figures, organizations, orders, acts, operations, and incidents. A term-focused expansion of Robert D. Schulzinger's chronological subject treatment, U.S. Diplomacy Since 1900.

Library Journal

It should be in all libraries that are interested in history of this time frame and how the U.S. diplomatic reaction occurred.

American Reference Books Annual

The book is topped off with a substantial and well-arranged bibliography, fifty pages long - a key part of the book.... This is another good entry in the Scarecrow series.... The book is quite well printed and produced.

Reference Reviews