From the author of the immensely influential and best-selling Of Paradise and Powerβa major reevaluation of Americaβs place in the world from the colonial era to the turn of the twentieth century.
Robert Kagan strips away the myth of Americaβs isolationist tradition and reveals a more complicated reality: that Americans have been increasing their global power and influence steadily for the past four centuries. Even from the time of the Puritans, he reveals, America was no shining βcity up on a hillβ but an engine of commercial and territorial expansion that drove Native Americans, as well as French, Spanish, Russian, and ultimately even British power, from the North American continent. Even before the birth of the nation, Americans believed they were destined for global leadership. Underlying their ambitions, Kagan argues, was a set of ideas and ideals about the world and human nature. He focuses on the Declaration of Independence as the document that firmly established the American conviction that the inalienable rights of all mankind transcended territorial borders and blood ties. American nationalism, he shows, was always internationalist at its core. He also makes a startling discovery: that the Civil War and the abolition of slaveryβthe fulfillment of the ideals of the Declarationβwere the decisive turning point in the history of American foreign policy as well. Kagan's brilliant and comprehensive reexamination of early American foreign policy makes clear why America, from its very beginning, has been viewed worldwide not only as a wellspring of political, cultural, and social revolution, but as an ambitious and, at times, dangerous nation.
Media Buzz
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - December 14, 2006 Charlie Rose - October 25, 2006 Talk of the Nation - October 19, 2006 Diane Rehm Show - NPR - October 11, 2006 Lou Dobbs Tonight - October 10, 2006
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