Reconsidering American Power offers trenchant studies by renowned scholars who reassess the role of the social sciences in the construction and upkeep of the Pax Americana. The thematic image for this enterprise is the ‘fiery hunt’ for Ahab’s whale, which focuses attention on the strange brew of mixed motives for American ventures abroad. The reach of Pax Americana exceeds its grasp, but this verdict requires deeper insight than simply flushing out cultural premises and conceptual limits. The volume’s purpose is to understand the USA’s ‘fiery hunt,’ and thereby to help to end it.