Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the immensely influential and best-selling
Of Paradise and Power a major reevaluation of America's place in the world from the colonial era to the turn of the twentieth century.
Robert Kagan strips away the myth of America's 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 "city up on a hill" 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 slavery the fulfillment of the ideals of the Declaration were 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.
Review
"[A]n outstanding reading experience....Massively researched, well argued, thought-provoking, and constantly surprising..." Library Journal
Review
"This new book is much heftier in its scope and substance [than Of Paradise and Power], and it is a superb mix of historical research and political theory." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review
"Brilliant and absorbing....The purpose of Mr. Kagan's project...is never made explicit, but its outlines are clear: to craft an intellectual and historical lineage for what is today loosely described as neoconservatism." Wall Street Journal
Review
"[C]arefully crafted...an engaging interpretation of American history, made the more so by the author's skill in presenting it....Kagan is able to give fresh interpretations to familiar landmarks of American history." Edmund S. Morgan, The New York Review of Books
Review
"Dangerous Nation is a first-rate work of history....It also casts a bright light on America's role in the world and on its manifold tensions with other countries....Helps bring long-dead diplomatic history to life." The Economist
Synopsis
The best-selling author of Of Paradise and Power reassesses the role and significance of America in the world, from the colonial period to the turn of the twentieth century, offering a revealing glimpse of America's increasing global power and influence over the course of the past four centuries. 75,000 first printing.
About the Author
Robert Kagan is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and a columnist for the Washington Post. He is also the author of A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 19771990, and editor, with William Kristol, of Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy. Kagan served in the U.S. State Department from 1984 to 1988. He lives in Brussels with his family.
Table of Contents
Introduction1. 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 the Power to Ambition, from Ambition to Power
12. Morality and Hegemony
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index