A World Safe for Capitalism ― Dollar Diplomacy and America's Rise to Global Power 1908

The 1905 American intervention in the Dominican Republic, taking over the finances of the country's custom houses in order to serve the interests of European and American creditors is seen by many as the beginnings of American empire. Yet the role of the San Domingo Improvement Company, a New York corporation, in triggering the American takeover is little understood argues Veeser (history, Bentley College). He details the efforts of the company to manipulate the economy of the small island nation in its favor, discusses how the SDIC brought the country to financial ruin, and examines the fusion of the SDIC's private interests and the geopolitical interests of the U.S. government. This story is one of the first cases of private business interests influencing American foreign policy just at the stage that the U.S. was emerging as a world power. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Cyrus Veeser, an assistant professor of history at Bentley College, won the Bancroft Dissertation Prize for the work on which this volume is based. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.