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Internationalist Oilmen, the Middle East, and the Remaking of American Liberalism, 1945–1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2011

Nathan J. Citino
Nathan J. Citino
Affiliation:
Associate professor of history at Colorado State University
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Abstract

The ways in which business–government relations influenced postwar liberalism in the American encounter with the Middle East are examined through the use of group biography. The linked careers of five internationalist oilmen who helped to formulate Harry S. Truman's domestic and foreign policies are tracked during and after World War II. Partly through the efforts of these influential men, the Middle East's vast oil resources became an important component of controversies about the direction of the New Deal. One conclusion to emerge from the study is that instead of simply studying liberal ideals in order to understand the American impulse to reform the world, historians also need to consider how global factors intruded into domestic reform debates.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 84 , Issue 2: A Special Issue on the Oil Industry , Summer 2010 , pp. 227 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2010

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