An intellectual history of the Atlantic Charter: Ideas, institutions, and human rights in American diplomacy, 1941--1946

This dissertation in the history of U.S. foreign relations integrates World War II era developments in international relations with broader themes in twentieth century political and cultural history, such as American exceptionalism, internationalism vs. isolationism, and contemporary uses of history and memory.; The study examines how planning for postwar international institutions growing out of the 1941 Atlantic Charter's war and peace aims transformed the idea of human rights in wartime America. It analyzes how the ideology of the Atlantic Charter's “fundamental freedoms” came to be embodied in three specific multilateral institutions, commonly known as Nuremberg, the United Nations, and Bretton Woods. These institutions set up mechanisms for trying war criminals, for promoting collective security, and for stabilizing and coordinating international financial and economic development.; Designed both to manage the transition from war to peace and to shape the postwar world, these institutions served as concrete expressions of a new articulation of U.S. national interests. The designers of the Nuremberg, United Nations, and Bretton Woods charters were actively seeking to redefine the idea of “security” in the international sphere, much as the combined effect of New Deal programs in the 1930s had redefined security domestically for individual American citizens. Together, though in varying degree, these institutions and the debates surrounding them have laid the foundations for the world Americans have inhabited for the last half-century.; The study contributes to an ongoing dialogue in the disciplines of international history, the history of political thought, and the history of international relations about American visions of the U.S. role on the world stage.