In Their Own Best Interest

A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans

Lars Schoultz

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780674244924, 9780674984141
• eBook ISBN: 9780674989016
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: History

Winner of the William M. LeoGrande Prize

For over a century, the United States has sought to improve the behavior of the peoples of Latin America. Perceiving their neighbors to the south as underdeveloped and unable to govern themselves, U.S. policy makers have promoted everything from representative democracy and economic development to oral hygiene. But is improvement a progressive impulse to help others, or realpolitik in pursuit of a superpower's interests?

"In this subtle and searing critique of U.S. efforts to 'uplift' Latin America, Lars Schoultz challenges us to question the fundamental tenets of the development industry that became entrenched in the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy over the last century."
—Piero Gleijeses, author of Visions of Freedom

"In this masterful work, Lars Schoultz provides a companion and follow-up to his classic Beneath the United States…A necessary and rewarding read for scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy and inter-American relations."
—Renata Keller, The Americas

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Altruists and Realists
• 1. Establishing the Need for Improvement
• 2. Uplifting Begins: The War of 1898
• 3. Money Doctors, Democracy Doctors, and Marines
• 4. Latin American Opposition and the Retreat from Protectorates
• 5. Pledging to Be a Good Neighbor
• 6. Breaking New Ground: Uplifting Institutions
• 7. To Improve or Not to Improve? The Cold War Question
• 8. Cuba Determines the Answer
• 9. Losing Panache, Entrenching Institutions
• 10. The Evolution from Economic to Political Improvement
• 11. Promoting Good Governance
• Conclusion: Whose Best Interests?
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Index