Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Finalist, Lionel Gelber Prize
Winner of the Akira Iriye International History Book Award

Description

During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, while key decisions were debated by the victorious Allied powers, a multitude of smaller nations and colonies held their breath, waiting to see how their fates would be decided. President Woodrow Wilson, in his Fourteen Points, had called for "a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims," giving equal weight to the opinions of the colonized peoples and the colonial powers. Among those nations now paying close attention to Wilson's words and actions were the budding nationalist leaders of four disparate non-Western societies--Egypt, India, China, and Korea. That spring, Wilson's words would help ignite political upheavals in all four of these countries.
This book is the first to place the 1919 Revolution in Egypt, the Rowlatt Satyagraha in India, the May Fourth movement in China, and the March First uprising in Korea in the context of a broader "Wilsonian moment" that challenged the existing international order. Using primary source material from America, Europe, and Asia, historian Erez Manela tells the story of how emerging nationalist movements appropriated Wilsonian language and adapted it to their own local culture and politics as they launched into action on the international stage. The rapid disintegration of the Wilsonian promise left a legacy of disillusionment and facilitated the spread of revisionist ideologies and movements in these societies; future leaders of Third World liberation movements--Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Jawaharlal Nehru, among others--were profoundly shaped by their experiences at the time.
The importance of the Paris Peace Conference and Wilson's influence on international affairs far from the battlefields of Europe cannot be underestimated. Now, for the first time, we can clearly see just how the events played out at Versailles sparked a wave of nationalism that is still resonating globally today.

Finalist, Lionel Gelber Prize

Reviews

"In The Wilsonian Moment , Erez Manela brilliantly reconstructs the story of the colonial world at the end of World War I and the impact of Wilson's new ideas for world peace and justice on the anticolonial movement.... The nationalist activists in Egypt, India, China, and Korea saw themselves as part of a global movement on the international stage, seeking to reshape international relations based on respect for internal and external self-determination."--William F. Felice, Political Science Quarterly

"Manela's book is that rare thing in good history writing: it is concise and well-argued, the kind of book that you finish knowing not only what you just read but its obvious importance to the world around you. It is also that very rare thing in U.S. diplomatic history, for the book not only covers what Wilson thought and said but also how people around the world interpreted his thoughts and actions. As much as this account is solid diplomatic history, it is equally a major contribution to a still largely inchoate field known as "America and the world'.... The Wilsonian Moment breaks important new ground. It is an excellent piece of history."--Ussama Makdisi, Diplomatic History

"The brilliance of Manela's book is that he succeeds in drawing a direct line between Wilson's promise, the failure of liberal internationalism, and nationalist rebellions throughout the world.... Manela succeeds in drawing people, places, and the atni-imperialist struggles of the twentieth century together in a new and utterly convincing way."--Michael Provence, H-Net Reviews

"Manela has used his impressive command of languages and non-English language sources to write an extraordinary first book, one that breathes fresh life into the study of Wilsonianism and establishes beyond question its truly global impact."--Frank Ninkovich, Nations and Nationalism

"This book will undoubtedly be definitive.... Manela conclusively shows that Wilson, who had little interest in liberating colonial peoples, inadvertently planted among colonial peoples the seeds of national self-determination and disillusionment with a West that saw this concept applying to white peoples only. Essential."--J.D.Doenecke, CHOICE

"Trawling through four national archives, Manela has produced an immensely rich and important work of comparative politics."--Pankaj Mishra, London Review of Books

"A probing historical study. Manela presents an enlightening analysis of a shortsighted failure whose convulsive effects are still with us."--Publishers Weekly

"...an important work."--The Independent

"...sophisticated in its analysis.... Manela's work rests on extensive archival research in many countries and languages...."--The Weekly Standard

"The international relations at the end of World War I have been much studied by historians but, as Erez Manela points out, mainly from the perspective of the center. Manela examines the periphery and shows how ideas, actions, and decisions taken by the powers interacted with local conditions and players. The Wilsonian Moment is a much-needed reminder that the non-European world was moving along its own tracks, which were affected but not necessarily determined by the center, and a significant contribution to our understanding of a crucial period."--Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

"Manela provides an impressive demonstration of the adoption of Wilsonian rhetoric by nationalist movements in China, Egypt, India, and Korea--and of their responses to the betrayal of their hopes and expectations at Versailles. His analysis goes a long way toward revealing the roots of anti-Americanism among African and Asian intellectuals."--Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

"Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawharlal Nehru, Syngman Rhee--they all responded to the 'Wilsonian Moment'--the dream of self-determination of subject people inspired, often in spite of himself, by the American president and the dashing of that dream at the end of World War I. Erez Manela shows with great sensitivity and insight how this moment affected different indigenous leaders and followers in the Middle East and South and East Asia. He shows how the outcome of this moment shaped much of the course of the twentieth century. This is the new 'international history' at its best."--John Milton Cooper, author of Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations

"Woodrow Wilson belonged to the tradition of colonial reform, not liberation, but nationalists everywhere used his slogan of self-determination to advance their own causes. The Wilsonian Moment will be indispensable to all scholars seeking to understand the political transformation of the colonial world in the aftermath of World War I."--Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin

"Erez Manela does a superb job both of telling stories that need to be told and changing his readers' understanding both of Wilson and the world. And given its emphasis on the tragedy of disappointed expectations raised by universalist rhetoric, this book should be read more by anyone interested not only in history, but in American foreign policy."--Anne-Marie Slaughter, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Product Details

352 pages; 20 halftones; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-517615-5ISBN10: 0-19-517615-4

About the Author(s)