Brands’ new book, America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War, narrates the debate over America’s role in the world in the run-up to World War II.
“It raises fundamental questions of what the American role in the world should be, what the role of voters in American democracy should be. What’s the future of the United States?”
Brands is a professor of history at the University of Texas – Austin. He says our most recent election shows that the concept of America as world protector could be shifting.
“Former president Donald Trump, now President-Elect Trump, has taken the position that America’s commitment to Europe probably shouldn’t remain the way it’s been for these last forty years. He has questioned the premises of NATO. He’s said on a number of occasions that American aid to Ukraine is not an American interest, so voters had a chance to make a choice.”
Brands says foreign affairs may not have been the central issue in the minds of voters, but it conceivably was an important one for Trump’s supporters.
“He adopted the label that I use as the title of my book, America First: focus on America rather than foreign countries. Now, Trump won, and so the question is, ‘What will be the follow-through?’”
You can hear more from Brands on The Shelley Irwin Show podcast.
