Inderjeet Parmar, professor of government at the University of Manchester will discuss his latest book entitled Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power at a Wilson Center panel on 30 May 2012. In Foundations of the American Century, Parmar sheds new light on the complex interrelations, shared mindsets and collaborative efforts of influential public and private organizations in the building of American hegemony. Focusing on the involvement of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations in U.S. foreign affairs, Parmar traces the transformation of America from an "isolationist" nation into the world's only superpower, all in the name of benevolent stewardship.

Parmar begins in the 1920s with the establishment of these foundations which focused more on managing social, political, and economic change than on solving modern society's structural problems. Drawing on newly released archival materials, Parmar recounts how the American intellectuals, academics, and policy-makers affiliated with these organizations institutionalized such elitism, which then bled into the machinery of U.S. foreign policy and became regarded as the essence of modernity.

Christian Ostermann, director of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program will chair the event.

Visit the Columbia University Press website to purchase this book online.