The American Ascendancy

by Hunt, Michael H.

• ISBN13: 9780807859636
• ISBN10: 080785963X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

A simple question lurks amid the considerable controversy created by recent U.S. policy: What road did Americans travel to reach their current global preeminence? Taking the long historical view, Michael Hunt demonstrates that wealth, confidence, and leadership were key elements to America's ascent. In an analytic narrative that illuminates the past rather than indulges in political triumphalism, he provides crucial insights into the country's problematic place in the world today.Hunt charts America's rise to global power from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a culminating multilayered dominance achieved in the mid-twentieth century that has led to unanticipated constraints and perplexities over the last several decades. Themes that figure prominently in his account include the rise of the American state and a nationalist ideology and the domestic effects and international spread of consumer society. He examines how the United States remade great power relations, fashioned limits for the third world, and shaped our current international economic and cultural order. Hunt concludes by addressing current issues, such as how durable American power really is and what options remain for America's future. His provocative exploration will engage anyone concerned about the fate of this republic.

Author Biography

Michael H. Hunt is Everett H. Emerson Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Table of Contents

Introduction: Framing the Question	p. 1
Nineteenth-Century Foundations	p. 11
Grand Projects, 1898-1920	p. 45
The American Way in a Fragmenting World, 1921-1940	p. 79
Reaching for Geopolitical Dominance, 1941-1968	p. 115
In the American Image, 1941-1968	p. 151
The Third-World Challenge, 1941-1968	p. 188
Disoriented Giant, 1968-1991	p. 225
The Neoliberal Triumph, 1991-	p. 266
Conclusion: Hegemony in Question	p. 308
Notes	p. 325
A Guide to the Literature	p. 357
Acknowledgments	p. 387
Index	p. 389
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