Research Interests
Jason Parker specializes in the history of US-“Third World” relations, studying both the formal and informal “diplomacy” embedded in the interactions of empires, nations, and peoples. His research examines the ways in which state- and non-state actors in the United States engaged with their counterparts abroad within a complicated matrix of strategy, security, decolonization, and race during the long “American Century.” His first book, Brother’s Keeper: The United States, Race, and Empire in the British Caribbean, 1937-1962 (Oxford, 2008), looked at the actions of US-based actors- the American government, African Americans, and Caribbean immigrants– in the push for independence in the British West Indies. His second book, Hearts, Minds, Voices: U.S. Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World (Oxford, 2016), examined U.S. efforts at "winning hearts and minds" in the global-South during the first half of the Cold War.
Areas of Speciality
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U.S. in the World
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Modern U.S.
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Cold War
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Decolonization
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Caribbean / Global South
Educational Background
- Ph.D., History, University of Florida, 2002
- M.A., History, Vanderbilt University, 1995
- B.A., English, Vanderbilt University, 1992
Selected Publications
Hearts, Minds, Voices: US Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Brother’s Keeper: The United States, Race, and Empire in the British Caribbean, 1938-1962 (Oxford University Press, 2008)