Full Description
Across the full span of the nation's history, Donald Stoker challenges our understanding of the purposes and uses of American power. From the struggle for independence to the era of renewed competition with China and Russia, he reveals the grand strategies underpinning the nation's pursuit of sovereignty, security, expansion, and democracy abroad. He shows how successive administrations have projected diplomatic, military, and economic power, and mobilized ideas and information to preserve American freedoms at home and secure US aims abroad. He exposes the myth of American isolationism, the good and ill of America's quest for democracy overseas, and how too often its administrations have lacked clear political aims or a concrete vision for where they want to go. Understanding this history is vital if America is to relearn how to use its power to meet the challenges ahead and to think more clearly about political aims and grand strategy.
Contents
List of Figures; Abbreviations; Thinking about grand strategy in peace and war; Part I. From Backwater To Great Power: 1. The fight for sovereignty, 1775-1801; 2. Expansion, sovereignty, and war, 1801-1817; 3. Seeking a continent: expansion, Indian removal, and the Mexican War, 1817-1849; 4. Schism, civil war, and reconstruction, 1849-1877; 5. Conquering a continent: the Indian Wars, 1865-1897; 6. American empire, 1897-1913; Part II. From Great Power to Superpower: 7. Stepping on the global stage, 1913-1921; 8. The interwar interlude, 1921-1939; 9. Moving astride the world: the Second World War, 1939-1945; 10. The hot peace and the Korean War, 1945-1953; 11. The hot peace: the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson years, 1953-1969; 12. The Vietnam War, 1961-1969; 13. Détente and defeat: Nixon, Ford, and Vietnam, 1969-1977; 14. For want of a vision: the Carter years, 1977-1981; 15. Winning the hot peace: Reagan's great power competition, 1981-1990; Part III. The Post Cold War World: 16. The Gulf War, or First Iraq War, 1990-1991; 17. The new world disorder: Bush and Clinton, 1991-2001; 18. Wilsonian revolutionaries: Bush and war, 2001-2009; Part IV. Retreat and Defeat: 19. Retrenchment, engagement, and war: the Obama years, 2009-2017; 20. Retrenchment, engagement, and weakness: Trump and Biden, 2017-2022; Conclusion; Acknowledgements; Notes; Index.
