Negative Positive
Title: A quick and educational read
Review: I read Felix Gilbert's _To the Farewell Address_ in an undergraduate course on US foreign relations. This is a book that exemplifies how a short, concise, yet informative history can be written.Gilbert discusses how ideas about foreign policy in the eighteenth century related to actual US diplomacy. Although the Latin headings of some chapters may be intimidating, the prose is not. The book flows and does not lose momentum in exhaustive analysis or a burdensome number of pages. At 169 pages, this book can be finished in a weekend.Gilbert focuses on the period from 1776 to 1796, culminating with Washington's Farewell Address. In doing so, Gilbert provides depth and insight to this formative period of US diplomacy. The roots, context, and controversies of US diplomacy from 1776 to 1796 are described and explained in the book. Much of Gilbert's analysis is still relevant to this day. In general, the book is a scholarly, yet short and enjoyable read.
Is the review positive or negative? 