Contemporary America, with its unparalleled armaments and ambition, seems to many commentators a new empire. Others angrily reject the designation. What stakes would being an empire have for our identity at home and our role abroad?
With learning, dispassion and clarity, this book offers comparisons and an original account of American power. It explores the exercise of US power in the 19th and 20th centuries, analysing its economic and strategic sources and the nation's relationship to predecessors and rivals...