| The American writer and political activist Pearl S. Buck, who had been raised as the child of Christian missionaries in China, played an important role from the 1930s until the 1950s in trying to shape United States government policy toward Asia and toward other parts of the non-white world, and shaping the attitudes of the American public toward Asians. In her efforts to help Americans understand the viewpoints of people who lived in other parts of the world, and to act collectively with others around the world based on these insights, Buck articulated what this study labels "critical internationalism." This phrase is defined here as internationalism based on a critique of American foreign policy, and on a commitment to transform American society at home as a result of interaction with those abroad. Buck and the like-minded "critical internationalists" described here criticized American unilateralism, racism, and complicity with imperialism.; Buck pursued such goals in her novels and short stories, in organizations which she helped lead, such as the East and West Association, and through publishing ventures with her second husband, Richard Walsh, especially the John Day Company and the magazine Asia. A broader network of writers and activists coalesced around Buck and Walsh on such diverse concerns as the status of Chinese and American women, the politics of famine and hunger in Asia, the struggle for decolonization, and alternatives to United States Cold War policy. This loose network included such Americans, and foreigners living in the U.S., as Harold Isaacs, Harris and Clare Wofford, Owen and Eleanor Lattimore, Jay Holmes Smith, Lin Yutang, Eslanda Goode Robeson, Norman Cousins, and J. J. Singh, among others.; These writers and political figures influenced American intellectual circles, and popular discourse, in the 1930s and 1940s. They did not achieve notable success in reorienting U.S. policy, especially with the onset of the Cold War. The analysis of "critical internationalism" is significant in demonstrating how interaction with other peoples shaped the ways an important segment of Americans came to understand the role of their own society at home and abroad. |
