A Renegade History of America Abroad

By Thaddeus Russell

From the author of A Renegade History of the United States--which Alan Brinkley called "a work of history like no other"--a provocative and fascinating alternative history of America's 250-year role in the world

As Thaddeus Russell demonstrates in his bold and eye-opening new book, America's presence in the world has always been propelled by two opposing impulses. Even before the Revolution, the founders saw an imperial opportunity; John Adams, long before his political career, predicted that the colonies could become "a new Rome." The United States has thereafter cast itself as a moral nation with a mission to spread democracy, progressivist ideals, and the discipline that undergirds capitalism. Yet, Russell provocatively observes, American capitalism "is equally dependent on desire." Exported through American popular culture, that desire became one of the most subversive forces in modern history--an existential threat to authoritarian regimes everywhere, more destabilizing than military intervention, and with far less of the often-violent "blowback" that usually follows foreign intrusion.

From the imperial ambitions of the Founders onwards, Russell charts a stimulating alternative history of America's role in the world. He argues the Civil War was, in large part, a colonialist project to conquer the South and refashion it in the North's image. He shows that while America's progressivist instinct drove armed control of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, the introduction of jazz in Manila nightclubs would ultimately have far greater global impact. He contends that U.S. entry into WWII was motivated less by defense or humanitarian concern than by imperial calculation, and that this helped ensure the horrors of the Holocaust. And he demonstrates how authoritarian regimes from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to contemporary Iran have been corroded from within by "the American way of life."

As elegantly written and impeccably documented as it is provocative, Thaddeus Russell shines an electric new light on America's role in the world. At a time when traditional relationships are being upended, it is a vitally important addition to our national history.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802128211
• ISBN13: 9780802128218
• Release Date: January 2021
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press