The American Empire

The American Empire, a provocative yet balanced title from The World in Focus series, presumes the existence of, at the very least, an imperial trajectory to the foreign relations of the United States. Each of the book's three sections focuses on a separate developmental phase, creating a basic and graspable conceptual framework for students. The first set of essays searches the past for the origins of American imperialism and the roots of American preeminence. The second section looks at how the United States applies - or sometimes misapplies - its unparalleled power and influence overseas, as well as the domestic implications of such actions. Each of the essays in the final section considers a future in which the United States acknowledges its imperial status and asserts itself accordingly, examining the beneficial and deleterious effects of a self-consciously active empire.