Facing West: Americans and the Opening of the Pacific

(Hardback)

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From the early years of the republic, many Americans anticipated a Pacific Age in world affairs that the United States would inevitably dominate, not in a territorial sense so much as in a cultural and commercial one. Despite the reality that Asia was of little real economic importance in American life until recently, a powerful image persisted in the American mind of the promises of riches to be found across the Pacific. This book provides the history of that dream, from the time of Spanish galleons to the hypersonic airplane of the future. With bewildering speed, the North Pacific region has come to rival the North Atlantic as a global center of manufacturing, trade and information, and the generation of wealth. The economic statistics show that the Age of the Pacific has truly arrived. Perry vividly shows that from the early years of the republic many Americans anticipated a Pacific Age in world affairs that the United States would inevitably dominate, not in a territorial sense so much as in a cultural and commercial one. Despite the reality that Asia was of little real economic importance in American life until recently, a powerful image persisted in the American mind of the promise of riches to be found across the Pacific. This book provides the history of that dream, from the time of Spanish galleons to the hypersonic airplane of the future. Countless books have been written about American-East Asian relations, but fewer books have addressed the importance of the Pacific Ocean to the United States. No one before has shown so comprehensively how Americans dominated the creation of trans-Pacific trade routes. This book will be of great interest to professional historians and the general public interested in the history of American-Pacific relations, the history of transportation, and the history of the entrepreneurial doers and dreamers who spearheaded American commerce with Asia.

Reviews

"I have read Facing West with absorbed interest, for this sweeping survey of American interests in the Northern Pacific over nearly two centuries is a very important book....It is an exciting contribution to the field of American studies. I found the book carefully and intelligently written, with wonderful use of significant quotations and occasional flashes of wit....A major work, impressive in scope and substance."-David Herbert Donald, Charles Warren Professor of American History Emeritus, Harvard University
Perry traces U.S. interests in the North Pacific from the times of Captain Cook and John Ledyard to the present. According to Perry, most American interests were, and still are, predicated on the so-called 'myth of the Asian market.' The myth maintains that the region's residents have great buying power and that fortunes are awaiting those who avail themselves of trade opportunties in the area... Recommended for all categories of readers.-Choice
"Perry traces U.S. interests in the North Pacific from the times of Captain Cook and John Ledyard to the present. According to Perry, most American interests were, and still are, predicated on the so-called 'myth of the Asian market.' The myth maintains that the region's residents have great buying power and that fortunes are awaiting those who avail themselves of trade opportunties in the area... Recommended for all categories of readers."-Choice

Author Bio

JOHN CURTIS PERRY is Henry Willard Denison Professor of History and Director, North Pacific Program, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. In 1991 the Japanese government awarded an imperial decoration, the Order of the Sacred Treasure, to Perry for extraordinary contributions to American-Japanese relations.