Reprint. Previously published in hardback by Oxford University Press in 2008.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [965]-995) and index.

"To begin the world over again" : foreign policy and the birth of the republic, 1776-1778 -- "None who can make us afraid" : the new republic in a hostile world, 1789-1801 -- "Purified as by fire" : republicanism challenged and reaffirmed, 1801-1815 -- "Leave the rest to us" : the assertive republic, 1815-1837 -- "A dose of arsenic" : slavery, expansionism, and the road to disunion, 1837-1861 -- "Last best hope" : the Union, the Confederacy, and Civil War diplomacy, 1861-1877 -- "A good enough England" : foreign relations in the Gilded Age, 1877-1893 -- The War of 1898 and the dawn of the American century, 1893-1901 -- "Bursting with good intentions" : the United States in world affairs, 1901-1913 -- "A new age" : Wilson, the Great War, and U.S. foreign policy, 1913-1921 -- Involvement without commitment, 1921-1931 -- The great transformation : depression, isolationism, and war, 1931-1941 -- "Five continents and seven seas" : World War II and the emergence of American globalism, 1941-1945 -- "A noble burden far from our shores" : Truman, the Cold War, and the revolution in American foreign policy, 1945-1953 -- Coexistence and crises, 1953-1961 -- Gulliver's troubles: Kennedy, Johnson, and the limits of power, 1961-1969 -- Nixon, Kissinger, and the end of the postwar era, 1969-1974 -- Foreign policy in an age of dissonance, 1974-1981 -- "A unique and extraordinary time in world history" : Gorbachev, Reagan, Bush, and the end of the Cold War, 1981-1991 -- The strength of a giant : America as hyper-power, 1992-2007.