Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The First Imperialists
2. The Foreign Policy of Revolution
3. Liberalism and Expansion
4. To the Farewell Address and Beyond
5. “Peaceful Conquest”
6. A Republic in the Age of Monarchy
7. The Foreign Policy of Slavery
8. Manifest Destinies
9. Beyond the National Interest
10. War and Progress
11. From Power to Ambition, from Ambition to Power
12. Morality and Hegemony

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author

Robert Kagan is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is director of the U.S. Leadership Project. He is the author of A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990 and coeditor with William Kristol, of Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy. Kagan served in the State Department from 1984-1988. He lives in Brussels with his wife and two children.

Reviews

“Brilliant and original. . . . A tour de force of historical writing that should change the way many people view the country's past. . . a landmark.” —Foreign Affairs“The most important reassessment of early United States foreign policy to appear in over half a century. Compellingly written and provocatively argued, it goes far toward explaining -- to the world but also to ourselves -- who we Americans are today, and where we may be going.” —John Lewis Gaddis, author of The Cold War“A first-rate work of history, based on prodigious reading and enlivened by a powerful prose style. . . . Helps bring long-dead diplomatic history to life.”—The Economist“Provocative and deeply absorbing. . . . [Kagan] shows how America was always a player, and often a ruthless one, in the great game of nations.”—The New York Times Book Review