Will democratic capitalism survive?

Event Details

American Forum

PBS World Channel National Broadcast: Virginia, Oct. 29, 2017/Nationally, Nov. 1, 2017

Melvyn P. Leffler is the Edward Stettinius Professor of American History at the University of Virginia, faculty fellow at UVA’s Miller Center and a Bancroft Prize winner. In his current book, Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism, Leffler gathers together decades of writing to address important questions about U.S. national security policy from the end of World War I to the global war on terror. Through the course of several chapter essays, he asks: Why did the United States withdraw strategically from Europe after World War I and not after World War II? How did World War II reshape Americans’ understanding of their vital interests? What caused the United States to achieve victory in the long Cold War? To what extent did 9/11 transform U.S. national security policy? Is budgetary austerity a fundamental threat to U.S. national interests? Leffler’s wide-ranging essays explain how foreign policy evolved into national security policy. Leffler's other books include: For the Soul of Mankind and A Preponderance of Power. A book signing will follow his appearance.