The United States and Imperialism

The United States and Imperialism uses concepts of civilization, identity, the civilizing mission, and cooperation to explain the role of imperialism in American history. The book begins with a survey of the methods and reasons behind America’s imperialist drive in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and then outlines the place of imperialism within the broader sweep of modern United States foreign policy. Ninkovich’s original analysis of America as an empire shows that imperialism, anti-imperialism, and geopolitics have all played a role in how the United States made decisions about acquiring new territories.