We May Dominate the World, Sean A Mirski
We May Dominate the World, Sean A Mirski
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We May Dominate the World
Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus

Author: Sean A Mirski

Narrator: Gary Tiedemann

Unabridged: 15 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 06/27/2023


Synopsis

What did it take for the United States to become a global superpower? The answer lies in a missing chapter of American foreign policy with stark lessons for today

The cutthroat world of international politics has always been dominated by great powers. Yet no great power in the modern era has ever managed to achieve the kind of invulnerability that comes from being completely supreme in its own neighborhood. No great power, that is, except one—the United States.
 
In We May Dominate the World, Sean A. Mirski tells the riveting story of how the United States became a regional hegemon in the century following the Civil War. By turns reluctant and ruthless, Americans squeezed their European rivals out of the hemisphere while landing forces on their neighbors’ soil with dizzying frequency. Mirski reveals the surprising reasons behind this muscular foreign policy in a narrative full of twists, colorful characters, and original accounts of the palace coups and bloody interventions that turned the fledgling republic into a global superpower.
 
Today, as China makes its own run at regional hegemony and nations like Russia and Iran grow more menacing, Mirski’s fresh look at the rise of the American colossus offers indispensable lessons for how to meet the challenges of our own century.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Zack on June 30, 2024

Sometimes I read a book and think to myself, “everyone should read this.” This is one of those books. It is a superb accomplishment. Very readable and engaging. Mirski’s story begins with Napoleon III’s invasion of Mexico during the American Civil War and the anxiety it caused in Washington. The fear......more

Goodreads review by Frank on August 31, 2023

Very interesting book. Most of the timeline of this book focuses on the time between the right at the end of the Civil War and the end of WWII. It is absolutely insane how much and how often the US intervened (interfered) with most Central and South American countries during this time with the use o......more

Goodreads review by Tommy on October 05, 2023

While the book provides ample information on the time period it does cover (the only reason this review has a second star), it largely glosses over the rest of American Imperialism. It leaves out entirely the 1st century of American history in which the nation vociferously snatched land away from co......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on February 17, 2025

An excellent diplomatic history! One of my weak spots as a historian is US diplomacy btw the Civil War and WWII. I've always understood the individual US conflicts well, but not necessarily the larger strategic architecture of US foreign policy. This book helped me fill in this gaps with its own bol......more

Goodreads review by Dan on May 23, 2023

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Public Affairs for an advanced copy of this history on the United States and it control over the Western Hemisphere, the many failures this lead to and how history keeps on repeating itself. I remember in school learning about the Monroe Doctrine and the......more