ABSTRACT
The study of history is littered with artificial divisions of chronology. Eras are said to have begun or ended in a specific year – often on a specific date – lending historical explanation and analysis a precision that is far too narrow to be possibly accurate. Precise beginnings and endings are often misleading, for they conceal other factors independent of particular dates that played as important a role in shaping events. In the history of American foreign relations, for example, the notion that US involvement with World War II began with the Japanese bombardment of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 ignores the escalation of tensions between the United States and the fascist powers, and the changes in the political economy and ideology of all countries, that long predated the attack.
