Book excerpt: Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, this concise reader uses a carefully selected group of primary sources and analytical essays to allow students to test the interpretations of distinguished historians and to draw their own conclusions about the history of American foreign policy. The text serves as an effective educational tool for one-semester courses on U.S. foreign policy or recent U.S. history. The Concise Edition consolidates the two volumes of Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, 6/e, into a single volume. Covering the major events of American foreign relations from the Revolutionary era through September 11 and its aftermath, the chapters also address the role of gender, race, and national identity in American foreign policy. This one-volume edition includes selected chapters from the two-volume edition that cover major events of American foreign policy from the Revolutionary era through September and its aftermath. The chapters have been carefully chosen to be inclusive of the most important events in American foreign relations. Chapter 1, "Explaining American Foreign Relations," has been expanded to encompass the broader period of time covered by this text. The final chapter includes coverage of September 11, Anti-Americanism in the Muslim world, and other recent events and attitudes. Chapter Introductions fill chronological gaps where chapters have been reduced from two volumes to one. The Further Readings section has been updated and revised to remain current.