Mark D. Morrison-Reed

Benevolent Intentions

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“In this era of neo-imperialist rhetoric and posturing, Fred Muir’s book reminds us that we have been here before. In unpacking America’s colonial past—not as a colony but as nineteenth-century colonizers—he sheds light on the current political situation in the United States. It is not an apparition. This exploration of the American overthrow of the Hawai’ian monarchy and colonization of the Philippines at the turn of the twentieth century serves as reminder of the inflated self-regard and imperialist values that thrived then. Benevolent Intentions maps out a religious liberal legacy and describes how it arose along with nineteenth-century exceptionalism of which religious liberals were proselytizers and enablers. It is a cautionary tale.”