(In)Gratitude, US Ascendancy and Transatlantic Relations after the First World War

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7150830
AutoresElisabeth Piller (0000-0002-8661-7727, University of Freiburg, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen34
Número2
Páginas213-231
Fecha de publicación2025-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaContemporary European History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0960-7773 • E-ISSN: 1469-2171
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s096077732300053x
OpenAlexW4387973533
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas29

During and after the First World War, the United States provided very substantial amounts of humanitarian and economic aid to war-torn Europe. All compassion aside, international historians have long recognised the strategic and social expectations attached to such foreign aid. US generosity was to build trust, reverence and influence abroad and, by inspiring ‘gratitude’ among recipients, to translate into a foreign policy advantage. But what happened when these expectations were disappointed? This article looks at transatlantic relations after the First World War to explore the role of gratitude in interwar international politics. It shows just how difficult it often was for Europeans to be appropriately ‘grateful’ and how emotionally the US public could react to such displays of perceived ‘ingratitude’. US aid – and the expectations and obligations that came with it – could excite distrust and resentment on both sides of the Atlantic

Distrust · Economic history · Generosity · Gratitude · International relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resentment · Reverence · Scapegoat · Sociology · World War II · Australian History and Society · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology