Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors

Első borító
Harvard University Press, 2006. ápr. 24. - 384 oldal

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?

A preeminent American historian addresses these issues in light of the history of empires since antiquity. This elegantly written book examines the structure and impact of these mega-states and asks whether the United States shares their traits and behavior. Eschewing the standard focus on current U.S. foreign policy and the recent spate of pro- and anti-empire polemics, Charles S. Maier uses comparative history to test the relevance of a concept often invoked but not always understood. Marshaling a remarkable array of evidence—from Roman, Ottoman, Moghul, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and British experience—Maier outlines the essentials of empire throughout history. He then explores the exercise of U.S. power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, carefully analyzing its economic and strategic sources and the nation’s relationship to predecessors and rivals.

To inquire about empire is to ask what the United States has become as a result of its wealth, inventiveness, and ambitions. It is to confront lofty national aspirations with the realities of the violence that often attends imperial politics and thus to question both the costs and the opportunities of the current U.S. global ascendancy. With learning, dispassion, and clarity, Among Empires offers bold comparisons and an original account of American power. It confirms that the issue of empire must be a concern of every citizen.

Részletek a könyvből

Tartalomjegyzék

What Is an Empire?
24
Frontiers
78
Call It Peace
112
Americas Turn
141
Highland Park and Hiroshima
143
Frontiers and Forces in the Cold War
151
An Empire of Production
191
An Empire of Consumption
238
The Vase of Uruk
285
Tables
297
Notes
301
Acknowledgments
347
Index
351
Copyright

Más kiadások - Összes megtekintése

Gyakori szavak és kifejezések

Népszerű szakaszok

2. oldal - The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles ; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High— the Sacred and the True.
11. oldal - We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

A szerzőről (2006)

Charles S. Maier is Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University and author of Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany.

Bibliográfiai információk