"LESSONS" OF THE PAST - the Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy, by Ernest R May - 1973

Oxford University Press, New York, USA 1973 hardcover, 14½cms x 21½cms, with dust jacket Ours is an ex-library copy in transparent protective covering, with usual stamps, stickers and barcode etc.VERY GOOD book in VERY GOOD unclipped dust jacket This book documents the theory that "They have prepared for the last war - or the last peace." One case study shows Roosevelt in World War II assuming that the post-war world would resemble that after World War I. Two others depict Truman developing the Truman Doctrine and then going to war in Korea on the premise that Stalin was another Hitler and that 1945-50 was a replay of the 1930s. This book argues that history can be better used. It concludes that government and scholars might make history a more useful resource for policy analysis.